New to the forum but not to wrenching my 2000 sport. (replaced cylinder head, brakes, the usual consumables).
But it's time for a new cat back exhaust. However, after cutting the old system out I found 2 surprises.
1) There were no nuts on the flange bolts between the cat and the muffler;
2) There was no gasket or seal between the faces of said flange.

Are these omissions by the previous installer or some convention I've never heard about. The new system included neither nuts nor a gasket.

 

Well, I'm pretty sure you can figure something out.

 

What do you mean no nuts did they just rust away or what ?

 

Talking the rear cat?
No gasket between the back of the rear cat and front of the muffler.
Should be nuts.
When I did mine I just brought my new muffler to the hardware store to size up the nut.
Used washers too most likely. Might have had to trim them a little to fit in the flange.