resonator, or what? Options

[94odiecelica]

im installing new headers, but under the factory manifold, below the heat shield, there is something. people have told me it could be a second cat which would mess up me puttin the headers on, ive heard its the resonator, ive heard flex pipe. its the thing between the downpipe and the gasket from the header. i was just wondering what exactly that part was.

[Galcobar]

That generic diagram isn't useful in telling you what's actually under your specific car -- you'll note for instance it lacks a flexpipe entirely.

Toyota does not, as a rule, put the resonator at the end of the exhaust run -- they prefer to put a muffler at the end. Keep in mind a resonator is not a muffler, despite many marketers and retailers applying the term resonator to round-body mufflers. What you'll normally see is manifold-catalytic converter-flex pipe-resonator-muffler. The primary cat is often attached directly to the manifold and acts as a collector pipe. For those systems with two catalytic converts, the sub-catalytic converter will be mounted between the flex pipe and the resonator, with the resonator moving back from the front exhaust pipe to the centre pipe. In systems with two cats and two mufflers, the resonator is usually omitted.

If you want to know whether emissions testing is required in your state or county, check their website. Or Google emissions testing in your area, and get this: http://www.dmv.org/pa-pennsylvania/smog-check.php