I have noticed that the exhaust on my 86 NA has been louder then usual lately. Anyway I brought it to a muffler shop for an estimate. It turns out that just about everything from the main cat back has to bee replaced. The precat’s look ok. They gave me an estimate of 879.00 for the job. Furthermore, they told me that anytime I drove the car with the exhaust in its present condition I would be damaging the engine. My first question is whether or not that is true. Is it ok to drive my car? Secondly, what are my options on the exhaust. I do not need anything super high performance. How hard is it to install exhaust components yourself? Thanks for your help.

Dan

 

The only thing you would have to worry about is if the cat is clogged. A rusted out (or completly missing) exhaust cannot damage the car. For $879 or even less, you could get a nice performance exhaust from rotary performance, mazdatrix etc. I would do that before letting a muffler shop install some walker piece of crap exhaust that'll only last for a year or so.

 

I would also pull the pre-cats and check them also. They seem to usually go before the main converter. They usually disintegrate and then blow into the main cat --clogging it to. Look into getting a downpipe (if you have emmissions testing) or a header setup.