Well, being in Cali, it is going to be very difficult to mod a car heavily and pass emissions.
How about this.... Go for a N/A build. Raise compression, cams, etc.
To pass emissons, maybe; find a HONDA OEM cat converter to use for your emssion/visual test. They are flanged, or get it flanged, so you can swap in a cat delete or gutted cat. Then when it comes time to test, swap in the OEM cat. ==> think this would work?
No muffler - run the longest Magnaflow resonator you can find to quiet it down..maybe even two resonators.
Muffler - ? something quiet but not pricey, like Magnaflow or Vibrant. You could probably run the longest res you can find along with your muffler and be quiet enough but still have good flow.
and, when all else fails, pay the guy to pass...
