So I ordered a new catalytic converter last Thursday night, and it showed up today. I was spraying all of bolts with PB Blaster for a few days which really helped to get things apart yesterday waiting for the part to show up today. I picked up new gaskets yesterday, and when I couldn't get the o2 sensor off of the original (no matter what I did), I had to buy a new sensor too. Sucks to spend the extra $65, but at least it was on sale (Got the Denso one vs. the Bosch since people have much better luck with Denso). Picked up a few new bolts, washers, and nuts for where it connects to the resonator, and new "exhaust studs and bolts" for up front.

Everything came apart easily, like I said, minus the o2 sensor.

The new Magnaflow downpipe/cat showed up at 2:00pm today, Everything looked good, and it even came with gaskets. The rear gasket looked great, so I will return the one that I picked up, but the front gasket from Magnaflow was a "ring" style. I tried for about 10 seconds to install that one before I gave up and said "that is stupid." There is no way to hold that "ring" style gasket in place while putting things togethers, so I used the one that I picked up myself as it was the same style as the factory/oem one with the "bolt holes" to hold it in place while putting things together. 45 minutes later and everything was together, I took a test drive, and cleaned up the tools and swept out the garage...

Oh, and the problem (noise) is fixed!

So this was a long time coming as the flex-pipe part of the downpipe/catalytic converter has been cracked for a long time and it just hit a critical point.

At some point I will replace the gaskets on both ends of the crossover, but for now the major problem is resolved. It is so nice not having any noticeable exhaust leak noise (there has been a "tinny" sound for a long time, just not loud like what I had in the videos).

What is so frustrating is that I told multiple people both online and in person (I.E. the repair shop that wanted me to replace supercharger parts), that it sounded like an exhaust leak. The repair shop, who knew that the downpipe was leaking, still never thought that it was something else. Seems like the only ones thinking that it was exhaust besides me (I didn't mention it until 6 days ago and several posts into this topic though) was you Scotty...

Speaking of Scottydoggs, thank you so much for sticking with me through all of this. Sometimes it just takes an extra perspective on the situation to say, "keep looking at the basics. If there is a known exhaust problem and it sounds like an exhaust problem, fix the exhaust problem first before worrying about more unusual items like the supercharger." OK, that is more of a combination of all of the ideas here and my own, but you get the point.

Thanks also to J57ltr and 99GT2dr for some ideas along the way as well.