I am thinking of replacing my stock exhaust on my very early 79 12a. I plan to use a header (looking at racing beat) and mini pri-silencer. My question is what will I have to block off when I remove the stock manifold (thermo-reactor) The air pump is still on the car but the belt is removed. Also the catalogs and my manaual say that I dont have a cat but a heat exchanger instead. However this thing looks alot like a cat to me. Any chance it is? Has anybody used these items from racing beat and if so what do you think about the sound/quality?. Thanks in advance for any help.....

 

Ya, racing beat is a great company. One of the best headers for our cars. Yes, you don't have cats, its a thermo reactor, but looks just like a cat. Do you have your rats nest on still? do you have yearly emissions test there??

 

I like my racing beat muffler and mini presilencer on my 79. They will bolt right up to stock exhaust after the heat exchanger.

The header should come with the necessary block off plates that go with the air pump. You will need to buy gaskets for all the connections.

Also till you get your header you should hook the air pump back up as it is needed to make the thermal reactor and heat exhchanger function and not have a MELTDOWN.

 

we dont have any inspections where I am and yes the rats nest is still in place. The belt was off of the car when I got it about a year ago so I would say any damage that could be done is already done. The car runs great as is but the small pipe that runs along side the main exhaust is broken off before the rearend and some fumes come in the car, it is also pretty loud so the neighbors are pretty much pissed at me when I leave for work at 6am......oh well.