Hello all,
Just picked up my first turbo rx7, a 1990 T2 (Black!) with 97k miles last night.

While driving it home, I noticed the engine light flick on and off a few times when cruisin at 70mph.

Once in the garage, i noticed a rapid ticking sound of cooling metal, looked under the car and noticed the downpipe/main cat glowing orange.
The split air tube was connected to the main cat, but hanging loose from the front attachment.

This morning i searched and determined it's either:
1. clogged cats
2. too rich fuel
3. a timing issue (retarded i think)

It's a stock exhaust, as is everything on the car.

So I figured I'd gut the main cat, and when checking the haynes manual saw there is a "front converter"

Do I need to remove the front one also to gut - can it be clogged?

Thanks for any info,
steve

 

Yes. I have done it before.

You are aware it is illegal to improperly dispose of the ceramic that you are going to be taking/hollowing out.

 

yeah - luckily we've got free hazardous disposal in my county
thanks, i'll gut it also

 

if you gut all you cats watch you boost levels or you will blow your engine.

 

i regret gutting my cat. it smells to much now. wasnt worth it for me.

 

i'm gutting for diagnostics, i'll replace as needed
can i cap the boost level-
and don't people try to increase boost?

 

yeah but like anything to much boost is also bad. even worse is uncontrolled boost aka boost surge.

 

Another thought -
i can purchase the Racing Beat Downpipe/presilencer factory fit 2.5" set for $310.
Perhaps I should buy this and replace the two cats instead of gutting them, and it won't set me back too much. (ie, don't also buy the cat back portion, which is an additional $625)

Anyone know of any problems using the stock cat back portion with the RB downpipe/cat replacement presilencer?

Thanks,
steve

 

Just noise. But the turbo manifold should shut that up quite a bit. If you put the downpipe combined with the presilencer like you mentioned above, it might sound metallic, later you could get a cat-back. I guess its more important to free the clog than to worry about how it would sound.
Good Luck.

Oh yeah, and smell. Without a cat you might get that "Why does your car smell like a lawn mower ?" question a lot.

 

thanks- and my wife calls that the "rx7 smell" which she gets nostalgic about.