[Jeff Lange]

Go 2.5" mandrel bent IMO. The mandrel bends can be had cheap.

I spent under $80 to do a 2" mandrel setup on my Corolla (no labour charge though, welded it myself). I also wasn't buying a cat though.

With $350 to work with, I don't think you'll have a problem doing a decent setup.

 

[Jeff Lange]

The header should come with a heat shield IMO. Or make it capable of using the stock one.

The TRD header for my Corolla allows use of the stock heatshield... I don't know why they wouldn't provide one.

 

[Jeff Lange]

True enough, true enough, lol.

 

[Jeff Lange]

Designing a header that could use the stock heat shield would result in a poorly designed header.

I had the feeling that with the 7M heatshield it wouldn't work too well with an aftermarket header (the 4A stock header is already a decent design, so they can use the stock heatshield without too much trouble). But including a heatshield wouldn't be hard.