What is the piece directly in front of the Flex pipe? Can that be replaced with a straight pipe to the main exhaust after the Yjoint? I have a vendor here selling a solid piece that runs from the cat to the flex and then sleeves over but want to make sure what I am replacing as the piece in front of the flex now doesn't appear to be a just a straight pipe?

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=320645802510[/IMG]

 

On the stock system it's a collector where the two exhaust banks meet.
You can purchase an aftermarket Y pipe that gets rid of that collector and the pre cats and makes the system flow better into the cat-back.

 

Will the car still pass an emissions test with the collector pre cats removed? On the piece on eBay, it is a straight sleeve the might cover the collector if that is simply round pipe going into the Ypipe.

 

It is illegal but the car can pass emissions, just need to drive it around for about 20-30 minutes to get it nice and hot.

Buy a Y-pipe- best bang for buck on the 4gen. I had an "aluminized" Warpspeed on mine for over 5 years with no issues(Midwest car so I got snow, salt, ice, rain etc). Was a great sub $200 investment. Some people complain about Warpspeed's flex section but I never had an issue- they should still offer an org discount.