Scarlet sat for most of the winter because of a bad fuel pump. I changed the fuel pump and Scarlet sounded like she had headers on her. Pulled the exhaust manifold off came out in two pieces. While I was in there, changed the Oil Filter gasket which I was putting off since I first got the car, took 10 mins.

 

If you haven't fixed it yet, that's not a big deal.
The break is at the 'pre-cat'. A good welder can easily fix it if you can get the alignment right off the car.
(Mine was $120).
Unfortunately, the official replacement is the manifold, flex pipe, pre-cat & cat all in one piece = expensive.

 

If you look closely you can probably line up the break back where it goes while outside the vehicle. Breaks in metal usually leave some sort of tear line that will allow alignment; sort of like lining up a tear in paper.

 

I was able to secure a used one from a fellow member which worked out well. I was even able to finally get to my leaky Oil Filter gasket... I'm going to keep the old unit just in case.

 

You can Weld it or get an aftermarket one, but since you got a used one you are ok now. Was the cat pretty clean?

 

Looked like it was pretty clean, light in color and no debris. Do you have any idea what would have caused it to break in that spot. Car has never overheated since I've had it, I've put 40K miles on it, currently at 147K. I do have an aftermarket cat-back exhaust (Borla Sport)?

 

It's not unusual to leak or break at that spot. The pre-cat connection seems weaker than the flex pipe. so catching the exhaust on something probably caused it.
For the old one, you could cut the pre-cat out & sleeve the pipes together.
It only affects cold starts & shouldn't affect emissions once hot.

 

This break is really common. I had exhaust manifolds break in the exact same place on two Minis last year. I got a spare used manifold from a friend for free, and bought another one online for $150. If anyone wants the two broken manifolds, I still have all four pieces. :-P

 

It’s called, bad design.

 

It's an easy weld, Might be a good idea to Check your engine mounts as well. The engine moving a lot can be the cause of the weld breaking in the 1st place.

 

I've already replaced the mounts and the exhaust manifold. FYI: The exhaust system on these cars are not rigidity mounted past the Flex pipe. From the Flex pipe to all of the rubber body mounts that allow the unit to move, It would more than likely be from age and poor design that let to the failure.