Nissan Repair: exhaust manifold replacement, heat shields, flex pipe

Question
hello Von.  I must ask for your help again.  The front exhaust manifold on my 1994 Nissan Quest GXE  with a manufacture date of 11/93 has a leak somewhere in it under the heat shields. I believe it is cracked( a known issue that I've read about time and again).  All the new replacement manifolds that I have seen have a flex pipe built into the pipe that connects to the main part of the exhaust system and do not look like they will bolt right up to my exhaust system that has a stock manifold with no flex pipe.  The one with the flex pipe looks too long.  do you know if the new manifold will directly bolt onto my existing exhaust down pipe where it is located from the factory, because I really do not want to re-route the entire system just for that. The van has 239,300+ miles on it and doing something like that would be a waste of time and money.  thank you again.

Answer
Dave,

Unless you can get a replacement for your specific build year (try rockauto.com) I would say no.  In that case you would have to replace both front and rear at once to get it to work.  There was a heck of a problem with the originals cracking and the studs breaking.  So, if it were me I would go with the revised set and just replace them both.  Otherwise, source one from a wrecking yard and do the front only.