My cat is dead, so I want to either gut it, or replace it with a midpipe. Since I live in CA though, I want to keep the look of a cat just in case a cop wants to look under my car (happened to my friend). So would a midpipe or gutted cat be a lot louder than having a high flow cat? I'm assuming so, and I don't want my exhaust to be any louder. So has anyone found a way to have a resonated midpipe pass a visual inspection?

If the sound isn't increased too much, then I'll just cut and weld the cat housing to a midpipe.

 

A resonated midpipe is not louder than a hi-flow cat. Since it has a large Magnaflow oval muffler in it, it would sort of look like a cat. But let's be honest...if a cop is sitting behind you, he's going to know you aren't running emissions....

 

Well if I get pulled over, the first thing I'd do when I stop is turn the car off. If I had just a straight pipe though, that would be blatantly obvious. If I at least had a gutted cat, I think I would get a ref ticket, but no modified emission ticket.