is this really what an aspire exhaust manifold should look like?

[htchbck]

1994 Ford Aspire 4-door, stock B3, auto trans

ok, I've stripped a couple of festiva motors down to the block before, but this is my first time really getting down and dirty with an Aspire (my roommates ride) other than of course ripping the brakes off several at various junkyards :-). Anyway, I was starting to remove nuts and bolts to replace the head with a freshly rebuilt one (thanks Nate!) and I took off the exhaust manifold heat sheild to find this...





I don't claim to be an exhaust expert, but this looks a lot more cobbled together compared to what I'm used to seeing on festivas... now I know this downpipe (besides being badly cracked) is not factory, especially since you can tell in the second pic that it appears to be welded to the cat:





So how much of this exhaust is bogus? I'm thinking of trying to find a complete (or close to it) exhaust at a yard and trying to fix this mess. But my main concern is the header, hopefully someone who is more familiar with aspires than me can tell me if thats the real deal or not. Thanks for any help/advice!

[V8Festiva]

Member irule480, nicknamed "AspireDoc" by the local Madness group

Andrew,

He is coming over today to pulled the engine out of a 94 Aspire.

Once it is out, some pictures can be posted.

Several members of the local Festiva Madness group will be here at the house from 12noon on working on our cars.

Everyone local is welcome to come over and wrench on our cars together.

My cell is 919-271-5190


Dean
Raleigh, NC

[htchbck]

Thanks Dean, those pics will be of great help, and thanks again for all that you've done for the festiva community as well!

[FestYboy]

the section 4" after the manifold to DP flange all the way to the cat is aftermarket cobble.
the manifold itself is factory.

[Smedley]

Joseph,

Here's a couple of pics of the car the guys worked on today,

[skeeters_keeper]

yea brakeswaps's have a tubular 'headder' as apposed to the festivas cast manifold. Not sure if its actually less restrictive or not... but obviously neither one is even close to having equal length runners.

glad you could put that head (or at least parts of it) to good use! Was it in good enough condition to just resurface and slap on?