1st Generation Specific (1979-1985) 1979-1985 Discussion including performance modifications and technical support sections

Gutting the cats in my SE

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Old May 12, 2006 | 12:57 AM
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Gutting the cats in my SE

i recently started looking into the RB complete exhaust for my SE. the only thing is i dont have the money right now to buy it. i was thinking if i could gut my cats to free up the flow until i can have the cash to buy the RB kit. i ask this because im not sure as to what this will do to secondary ports opening..will it run properly or will the secondary ports not open at all? i miss having top end power! my SE came from cali and i can notice the power falls flat on its face after 5500rpm!
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Old May 12, 2006 | 10:07 AM
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I gutted the cat on my S4 NA and had no problem with the aux ports opening. The tube that connects to the outside of the cat continues inside it, with a series of small holes in it. If you don't tear up the tube inside, you should be good. Are you sure the aux ports are opening?
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Old May 12, 2006 | 10:17 AM
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disgrace

GUESS WHAT GUYS AND GALS
This is exactly what is causing the "greenhouse effect" and "global warming"
you all are poluting the envoirnment and dont give a ****.
Lovely just Lovely
How bout this fire her up nice and cold - and put your face directly behind the muffler - you can join all the others that are pushin up the daisys
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Old May 12, 2006 | 10:48 AM
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From: St Joe MO
Originally Posted by paulied3
GUESS WHAT GUYS AND GALS
This is exactly what is causing the "greenhouse effect" and "global warming"
you all are poluting the envoirnment and dont give a ****.
Lovely just Lovely
How bout this fire her up nice and cold - and put your face directly behind the muffler - you can join all the others that are pushin up the daisys
If that's the case, then I am sure you have led the way in addressing this issue by putting your car in storage, or better yet, a museum, and have bought yourself one of the new hybrid cars. Good for you.
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Old May 12, 2006 | 12:05 PM
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Originally Posted by trochoid
If that's the case, then I am sure you have led the way in addressing this issue by putting your car in storage, or better yet, a museum, and have bought yourself one of the new hybrid cars. Good for you.
Let me take a wild guess here; you live in an area that has mandatory emissions testing, right? I find its much easier to maintain a righteous attitude when you have no choice in the matter...
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Old May 12, 2006 | 12:29 PM
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Smile Enviro 101

I don't think that the RX-7 forum is the proper place for enviromentalists. And furthermore the Germans published a study that stated they had found traces of the precious metals that the ceramic honey comb is treated with in isolated parts of Greenland where there are no cars. How'd they get there? So who's right? Nobody. If you study the "hole" in the ozone you'll notice that depending on the time of year and seasonal changes your "giant hole" actually expands and CONTRACTS. An enviromentalists can show you images from one year that show significant changes in the "hole" depending on how they're arranged. A scientist will tell you that the "hole" is not much larger than it was when the dinosaurs walked the earth.

Chlorine (Cl) atoms are what have an "effect" supposedly, so politicains and the EPA have desinged rules to restrict vehicle emmissions even areosol cans, because they don't want to (or are too lazy) cover their outdoor pools (which emmit way more Cl than cars). Got an outdoor pool to go with your permanlty garaged 7? Ever spill some gas filling your lawn mower (that doesn't have a cat)? We're all guilty. You can't go through life without harming your surroundings. Ever eat beef? Cattle farms are some of the most air polluting industries of all time. I don't see you saying ,"Shame on you for eating that big juicy steak."!
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Old May 12, 2006 | 01:52 PM
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I happily drove my SE on Earth Day
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Old May 12, 2006 | 02:05 PM
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gut the cat and your power will come right back. i discovered my precat had discintigrated and clogged my main cat even the wire mesh was shoved into the main cat. plan on it being a job that takes a few hours. the hardest and most time consumeing part is breaking up the cat with a hammer and pipe. make sure you get all the metal mesh out. after you finish your car will easily hit the redline. make sure you get new gaskets from mazda before you start because they are the only ones that fit right.
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Old May 12, 2006 | 02:34 PM
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Just to stir it up a bit more, this is what I have found to be the easiest way to gut the honeycomb cats.

I have an 18" long, Irwin 3/8" Speedbore wood drill bit, the auger type. Mount it in and 18 volt screw gun and drill as many holes as you can. Be careful not to damage the feed pipe for the aux ports that runs across the center of the core. You will need to drill from each side due to the mesh in the center, between the 2 honeycomb blocks. Once the holes are drilled, take a crow bar or mechanics pry bar and poke away to breakup the comb. The pieces at the side will need some prying on to gain access to them so they too can be beaten into submission.

Use a shop vac to clean everything up, no compressed air, the dust is very harmful to the lungs. See, I am safety conscious.
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Old May 12, 2006 | 05:07 PM
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Originally Posted by paulied3
GUESS WHAT GUYS AND GALS
This is exactly what is causing the "greenhouse effect" and "global warming"
you all are poluting the envoirnment and dont give a ****.
Lovely just Lovely
How bout this fire her up nice and cold - and put your face directly behind the muffler - you can join all the others that are pushin up the daisys
Absolutely Untrue! Archetypically kneejerk fuzzy thinking -

The principle greenhouse gas produced by driving is CO2, carbon dioxide; the amount produced is a function of the number of C-H bonds broken to produce the energy to move your car, i.e. the amount of gasoline burned.

The primary function of a cat is to catalyze the reduction of nitrous oxides, byproducts of the combustion process inside your engine, which are both precursors and components of smog, a local issue in congested areas, but not a cause of global warming. Later cats, but probably not those on a 1st gen, secondarily catalyze the oxidation of unburned gas and CO, carbon monoxide, into more CO2 -

To the extent that a cat reduces efficency, i.e. mpg, it actually increases global warming by increasing the amt of gas burned for driving, albeit while reducing non-global smog... unless, of course, you are motivated to drive less in your lower performing vehicle.

Bill

an ardent evironmentalist, but an even more ardent scientist!
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Old May 12, 2006 | 05:26 PM
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From: St Joe MO
Bravo, and welcome to the forum, we need more eggheads here to balance out the pool.
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Old May 12, 2006 | 05:55 PM
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Actualy this green house gas thing is BS. It is a myth more then anything elce. First of all if we assumed it were true, it would also reflect out as much light as it keeps in, however it is not true.

The so called green house gasses also have a bi-product of smog which blocks out the sun preventing global warming, concidering we actualy get are heat from the ground due to advection.

Moreover, it is a well known fact that the time period we live in right now is between iceages. Now I am prity sure there were no cars to polute 50 000 years ago initiating the cause of the last ice age.

If our polution is depelting the ozone layer as some say it does, why is it that, all the holes in the ozone layer are over places where there are no cars, or anything that polutes.

The winds did not push the gasses over antartica so they could create a hole... no this happens naturaly.

I would also like to mention that trees produce methane gas. This is a far worse green house gas then carbon monoxide, or carbon dioxide, which trees convert to oxygen. So irnoicly enough if you plant trees, it is bad for the enviorment. (this only aplies if you belive in green house gasses)


Sorry about that, but I don't like it when individuals leap before they look. Great minds think for themselfs, don't follow the opiate of the masses, as Karl Marx would say.
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Old May 12, 2006 | 06:44 PM
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I can list my sources if need be
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Old May 12, 2006 | 07:35 PM
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WOW all i needed to know is if my aux ports will still work properly if i gut my cats....all im getting is how to do so...i dont know if my aux ports are working anyway, how can i test this?
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Old May 12, 2006 | 07:42 PM
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From: St Joe MO
Ports should still work. To test them, put a dab of grease on the shafts of the actuators and take it out for a drive. They should begin to open around 3800 rpm. If the grease has moved the ports have opened. Some people say you can't get them open unless the engine is under load, but I have seen them open up in the shop, reving the engine on both the SE's and my S4.

Today has been a fun day for thread divergence, but the questions eventually get answered.
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Old May 12, 2006 | 07:46 PM
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Didn't you know that gutting out your cats involves a strict lesson in Greenhouse Gases? I personally can't wait till I get the time to bolt up my new header and my 2 magnaflows. My cats are clogged as hell.
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Old May 13, 2006 | 08:20 PM
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the aux ports will still work. they still woork on my car and i gutted the cats. you can also go to the online factory workshop manual and test the port actuators the way it says to. make sure you get the mazda factory gaskets.
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Old May 13, 2006 | 09:21 PM
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you say black is white, when we both know it's grey
you cannot be concerned for the environment and drive a 7....or any car for that matter..the magic cats don't stop all the pollution
humans are the 'perfect' parasites
world destruction is job 1
so stop using the paper grocery bags..they will still chop the forests down
stop using the aerosol cans..they will still produce them
stop driving your 7..someone on here will drive it for you
embrace the reality and enjoy the creature comforts aforementioned

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Old May 13, 2006 | 09:51 PM
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well im from new zealand and thats where the ozone hole is above entire nz and 1/4 austalia

the only differece between usa and nz is your more likey to get melinoma and other skin cancers,plus the worst sun burn ever in the little country because there is no ozone in place theres nothing to block out most of those uv rays

in usa the temp gets so exrtreamly hot AND ITS NOT SUMMER YET hmm.
i havnt got burnt at all not evan red.but also im dieing under the etream heat

hehe



well after readin the quetion im gonna give this a shot my cat has a hole in the side will this just cause more back fires?

do we have to replace gaskets?
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Old May 13, 2006 | 09:59 PM
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HOT, you are in one of the cooler parts of the country, suck it up man. LOL.

Gaskets are usually toast, replace them.
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Old May 13, 2006 | 11:55 PM
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Just cut them off and put them back on for emissions. If it applies to you.
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Old May 14, 2006 | 08:58 AM
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Lol?

Originally Posted by paulied3
GUESS WHAT GUYS AND GALS
This is exactly what is causing the "greenhouse effect" and "global warming"
you all are poluting the envoirnment and dont give a ****.
Lovely just Lovely
How bout this fire her up nice and cold - and put your face directly behind the muffler - you can join all the others that are pushin up the daisys


:smiley_12 tree huggers :smiley_12 rx7 owner
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Old May 14, 2006 | 05:39 PM
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i dont have emissions testing in my city...
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Old May 18, 2006 | 10:05 PM
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Damn it! Sorry Trochoid, I meant to quote the environmentalist preacher above, not you...
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Old May 18, 2006 | 10:17 PM
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Haha, never even noticed the misquote, no problem.
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