My 82 242 turbo has the catalytic converter underneath the car, where I think the non -turbos have the central muffler. My car only has the rear muffler. I'm not familiar with the cars enought to know whether mine is in the stock location. One local Volvo mechanic was surprised the converter wasn't in the engine compartment, and thought that is where it was supposed to be, I got the impression from a post on turbobricks that mine was the stock set up, but it wasn't clear to me. Does anyone have the definitive answer?

I need a new converter, and the prices for the turbo converters from the internet places are pretty high; much higher than non turbos. The turbo converters all seem to include a headpipe however, and I'm not sure I need one. It seems like a muffler shop could just cut out the one I've got, and weld in a new one. Any problems with this? Aside from the headpipe issue, is there any difference in a turbo converter as compared to a non turbo converter?