hey guys i have a 1990 vert. and im thinkin bout gutting my clogged cat tonight. your opinions are valued. and i also need to know if there are any problems im gona run into

 

It's the one thing on the car you can beat the $hit out of, and feel good about it afterwards...

I just used a 1/2" socket extension & a hammer...

 

My friend used a really long screw driver to pound the **** out at both ends.

 

The best way to go is a downpipe- if you are lucky enough to live in a state w/o emissions laws (yay FL!!)

Anything else is just ghetto. Besides- think about how turbulant the exhaust flow will be going over all those rough edges you just created.

 

It's better than the cat being clogged isn't it? And it's free!

 

So how do you gutt your cat out, sorry imma noob at these kinda things..=P

 

Take the cat out, look inside you'll notice some honey comb type **** in there. Get something long and pointy and a mallet. Put the pointiest end into one side of the cat and poke the **** out of the innards of the cat as hard as you can. For detailed work you can use a mallet once the majority of stuff is gone. Then switch to the other side to get whatever is left that the thing ur using couldn't reach. It's not too hard

 

Take a long bar like a socket extention or a pipe, and a hammer and beat the honeycomb catalyst out of the insides.

 

So what does this do? will you have any performance gain? is this illegal in california?

 

Well the stuff in the cat impedes air flow, especially older clogged cats. When it's gutted, air can flow freely, and free exhaust allows the engine to breathe easier, creating more power (to an extent)

On the downside, it means the cat doesn't actually work anymore, so your exhaust is gonna stink. Of course, most peoples' cats don't work anyway...

And yes, it's illegal in any state that has emissions. Some states like mine only do a visual inspection on older cars like FC's, so if the cat is there it will pass, gutted or not. Cali is very strict though, so you'd be screwed.

 

i just got home from some dudes house who told me all about how its gona be a 5 hour job and that i could screw my car up with the o2 sensor and what not. so if you guys could reasure me that im gona be fine here it would be appreciated

 

What? I've never heard from any of the people I've known to do it for it to screw anything up.

 

lol well i went ahead and did it anyway while the site was down. glad to say the operation went good. i thought about it and the guy ended up just being a dumb *** that i shouldnt have listend to in the first place.

 

and dont smell the stuff in the cat!

 

A better idea; for anyone reading this thread, is to simply ram a pipe of equal size into the catalist material, then weld that up. That way, it is now a streight pipe for better flow.

 

Some cars have an o2 sensor after the cat... I can see how that could cause problems. No problem for ours, though.

 

I took pics when i did mine, i used a hammaer, chisel and a crowbar.......
it works trust me

 

just remember its going to be a bit louder -

 

yeah it is a bit louder but i dont really mind it knowing that my car can now exhale properly.

 

would there be neway to restore the cat? like steam cleaning it or something...... I only ask because my cat is clogged and I am somewhat environmentally friendly so basically removing it isn't an option. also I'm cheap so buying a new one isn't one either.

 

only way - to buy a new cat

 

Can someone clarify this gutting process for me? Are you gutting just the main rear cat or both pre-cats too? If it's only the main one, do you keep the pre-cats how they are or do you remove those? My main cat is flowing fine, but the pre-cats are either clogged or have leaks in them. If I just remove/gut the pre-cats and leave the main rear cat, would that make my FC ridiculously loud? And how about emissions? I posted a topic about this yesterday but so far no one could give me the answer I was looking for. ;(

 

Clean 'em all out.

 

i just gutted my main rear cat and that did the trick i havent hurt of (so far) anyone having a clogged rear cat but hey what do i know. im still learning.