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Those flanges are not hard to get. The crummy little exhaust shop I went to just looked up a 90 cat in their book, saw the flange and ordered one. Took 2 days to get it. They put a ball end (mates w/ Flowmaster rear Y-Pipe perfectly) on a 20 - 24in long (don't remember)3in diameter pipe and flared out the other end to fit over my Hooker Y-pipe (same setup as scorp508's I think). Took them about 3 days total and $40. I did not give them the car to play with. I just told them to make the pipe a few inches longer than a stock cat (spec was in their book).
I could have got it in stainless pipe but they didn't have any in stock and it probably would have cost quite a bit more. I think this guy is charging some serious Corvette Tax for this pipe.
Where did the flange come from? Can I salvage one off this plugged cat? Also, can anyone make this ball end so it can mate witht eh cat back system and slip into the header Y pipe?
I don't know the name of the company they ordered it from but it was just a normal exhaust supplier - they ordered their replacement cats and mufflers from the same company.
I doubt the old one could be salvaged. If it is anything like the stock 90 cat, there is not enough pipe to make it work. The ball end is made with some kind of pipe bending tool. The shop had the right tool and just bent the pipe to match.
The exhaust shop I talked to only charged $15 to hollow out both converters and put straight pipe through. I told them it was for offroad use and I could bring them the pipes so they didnt have to put them on a street legal car and risk the fine.
I used to work in an exhaust shop and used catalytic converters are GOLD!!
The reason they only charged you $15 to clean them out is because they will make twice that just by recycling them.
At my shop we used to pay 34.95 for a universal converter. If the lold converter still had all the substrate left in it, they were worth $30 - $45.
We had a 5 gallon bucket that we would dump the insides in if they were broken up. My boss got $100 for that.
For getting your cat cleaned out, I would recommend a little mom and pop exhaust shop, not a national franchise.
If you're caught, the federal fine is $2,500 per violation. So that means $2,500 for cutting it off, $2,500 for putting in a pipe. Expensive game. State fine varies.
I did it to mine, just because it was broke loose.
I live in California, and my exhaust consists of:
Hooker Super Comp's
Custom Flowmaster 2½" into 3" Mandrel Bent Front Y-pipe
Dynomax 3" In/Out Race Bullet
Custom Flowmaster 3" into 2½" Mandrel Bent Rear Y-pipe
Black LT1 Tips
Now, this is on my otherwise STOCK 87 Corvette...and I"ll say it's STILL not loud enough! As far as resonance, it's NON EXISTENT.