I'm wondering how much gain could be had by simply doing a downpipe back exhaust installation instead of all the work that goes into replacing the the upipe and/or downpipe. I figure your gonna get something out of it since your still removing one of the 3 cats and hopefully increasing overall flow. I'm considering doing this in conjunction with a Vishnu remapped ECU and their pulley system. I was just wondering if anybody thinks I'd be wasting my time and/or money or if this would be a reasonable EASY way to get some decent power out of the car. Or do I need to just suck it up and do the work?

Part of my dilema comes from the fact that I bought the car on one of those balloon payment deals because I might have to get rid of it and go back to driving a POS in 2 years so I can quit my job and move to where ever my significant other ends up doing her residency once she finishes med. school. My point here is that I don't really want to do anything irreversable (i.e. shredding the heat shield) and I may have to go through all the same work again to put the thing back to stock. Any suggestions?

I've been reading the crap outta this board before posting and doing multiple searches so I don't hack off the established members by asking previously addressed questions. I didn't see anything quite like this posted before and I apologize if I it's out there and I missed it.