So, sad to say that Nissan exhaust manifolds blow...mines got a rather large crack. Anywho, I'm probably going to switch to the SLR headers which eliminate the pre-cats, thus happening, it would mkae the car "illegal" in a sense wouldn't it? California at least? Whats to say that I wouldn't pass a sniffer test?

thanks in advance guys

Seek and ye shall find. Or give Spencer, et. al time to get back from Baja and give him a call to figure out the nitty gritty details like emissions.

can you use headers on a supercharged 3.3? if so, where can i get some?

yeah, I searched, but I didn't quite find what I was looking for.

If you want some you better order them now so you can get them in 2008! Or maybe you better wait until they ship mine because I don't want you getting yours first!

Yes, you are probably going to have a hard time in California. AFAIK, they do more than a sniff test, right? If that's the case then you are screwed no matter what. I don't have to do emissions testing, so I'm going all out. My Xterra won't have any cats and it will have a full dual exhaust all the way back from the headers. I intend to have the EGR capped or rerouted and "tricked" so that the check engine light isn't on all the time, which would happen without the cats. Don't ask what all the custom work is going to cost! Actually, I don't know yet myself... the estimate was $55/hour plus materials. I expect to be at least $2K with the price of the headers included.

Now, it "may" be possible to do it in a way so California doesn't know, but the hardest part for you will be to find someone in California willing to break the law and do the work. Anyway, it may be possible to simply relocate the first set of cats so they are further downstream and closer to the second set. Of course this will require some custom work, but I do believe it's possible and it's something I considered using high flow cats. That was before I came to my senses and decided to just ditch the cats altogether!

Oh yeah, about that sniff test. Here in WA a number of years ago my Dad was able to get good test results without a cat or any other emissions control on a '77 Ford F150 with a 350 in it... running regular leaded gas! But, that was in the '80's and things are more strict now. Still, it was good enough that it might pass now in WA, and at the time it was better without the crap than with it. Cali, hell no! Point being, of course, that a properly tuned and running engine really doesn't need all that crap, so it's possible the Xterra could pass too. Really, all that crap is just there to clean up inefficiencies, so if you don't have any inefficiencies, then they shouldn't be doing much, if anything. I intend to find out when I get my work done. I want to have a sniff test done before and after so I can compare the results. If you can wait until 2007 sometime when I hopefully get the headers and get this done (I ordered them in August... still waiting) then I can let you know!

There is always the option of having someone build a custom set of headers that will work with your cats. It IS possible, just costs more money that way! If I were handy with stainless welding and such I would make my own, but I'm just not good enough with the welder. Wish my Dad were still alive; he could have built some freaking sweet headers for me!

know what, I think I'm just gonna go ahead and order them.