removing the catalytic converter

[jdellinger1980]

Anybody know an easy way to take out the cat and put a piece of pipe back in or an empty cat without having to weld anything, I dont know how to weld but I would love to get rid of the cat and Im on a very tight budget of "no money".

[slinky]

Cut the cat off with a sawsall, get a piece of slightly bigger and longer pipe but it where the cat was and u clamp it in

[IsaacHayes]

if it's not too rusted you could un bolt it from the rest of the exhaust, unbolt the downpipe take the whole cat/dp off and knock out the insides then bolt back up.

Otherwise cut it off, replace with straight pipe and clamp it back together. I'd get stainless clamps in either the U bolt style or the better strap/band clamp so it doesn't rot out in a year and fall apart. The pipe you can use normal aluminized and if you don't do any welding on it, it will hold up pretty good.

[pocket-rocket]

I hollowed the one out in the 92 after it started rattling from the catalyst breaking up inside. I read on the Ranger forums I'm on where one guy said the downside to hollowing a cat basically makes it like an expansion chamber (think 2 strokes) and that he has seen plenty of head gasket failures because of this. I'm not too sure how much of the head gasket failures I believe, but the expansion chamber theory does make some sense.

[RedZMonte]

if its rusted on there good i would take it in and flange it on both sides... then go home bust the guts out of it (use a mask, dont breath in the dust... Very bad for you) and bolt it back in.. If you decide to flange it like i suggested i would recommend V-band flanges/Clamps.. VERY easy to remove in the future and no gaskets to fail and leak.

here is another option.. Passes Visual inspection but is straight piping, kinda sneaky! Looks like a cat but is just a pipe with a housing on it to "LOOK" like a cat.

http://www.siliconeintakes.com/product_info.php?cPath=10&products_id=331&osCsid=03c169e56271bae4fba1955016bbbff0

S

[pocket-rocket]

Lol! Now that is pimp! That's better than sticking a section of pipe through a hollow cat making the ID smaller.

[jdellinger1980]

thanks guys I think I might go with that fake cat just cause it looks pretty damn cool. The emissions laws here in nc say that I dont have to do an emissions test for 95 and below but I dont know if you still have to have a cat on.

[IsaacHayes]

Yeah I might go that route on my orange car. Visual only here. More power, more sound. Actually the orange car isn't louder than the Aqua, but I don't know what kind of muffler it has.

[jdellinger1980]

Thats a nice looking car eventually one day I hope I can get mine looking that way, right now Im just doing the small cheap mods that I can do to try and bring some of the horsepower back.

[60dgrzbelow0]

Yeah I might go that route on my orange car. Visual only here. More power, more sound. Actually the orange car isn't louder than the Aqua, but I don't know what kind of muffler it has.

Isaac... we are all very interested in the 2010 "Orange Car Project"... But Man... For the LuvvaGod... Do NOT use the carpet THIS guy has ...for your new interior!!!

http://www.60degreev6.com/forum/f98/couple-of-questions-t45402

[Schurkey]

Oh, yeah. I'm having a flashback.

Starbuck wasn't coffee, but moonlight feels right.

The Cult didn't fear the reaper

Rhiannon.

Boston debuted and ruled the earth from an outer-space GuitarShip. God, I loved Foreplay/Long Time.




This ain't "Fifty Ways to Leave your Converter".

You people act like it's 1976 and you've just put three tankfulls of Leaded into your new car. "Test Pipes" were just getting popular--before they were outlawed. Time to grow up and figure out that catalytic converters--especially the monolithic style--aren't the enemy.

[pocket-rocket]

I don't think anyone sees the cat as an enemy, but the fake cat as a cost efficient alternative to a high flow cat on a car that isn't going to be street only.

[IsaacHayes]

I have a metallic core magnaflow stainless cat on the Aqua car, paid a lot for it. I'm not anti-cat. The orange car came with no cat, (and thank god no orange shag). The orange car is not a daily driver.

[latemodelnewbee]

I dont know how the laws are there North Carolina but here in Texas you can sell your cat to certain shops where they break them down for the platinum and palladium inside. I removed my cat from my 91 Z34 and sold it for enough for the "test" pipe and a couple of cheap turbo mufflers.

[Schurkey]

I dont know how the laws are there North Carolina but here in Texas ...

Anywhere in the USA it's against Federal law to remove a functioning converter.

Removing and scrapping a defective cat is legal--provided you re-install another functioning cat in the same position. In some states, you have to reinstall an OEM cat to comply with state law; but by Federal law, if the state law doesn't require OEM, aftermarket cats are OK.