Well I tried to just take off my main cat yesterday so i could gut it, but it didnt work out to well. First i got under there with a ratchet and a small cheater bar and couldnt get it to budge. Made my friend get up under there and he got one bolt off, by the skin of his teeth. Well my friend had to leave and since i dont have enough strength to turn it i busted out the impact gun and got under there. The impact gun wouldnt even turn the bolts AT ALL. I didnt have a torch to heat the ****'s up. I used half a can of PB blaster on the bolts and nothing would help. Do you guys have any ideas what i could do. Its looking like im going to have to bring it to a shop and get them to put a new cat on and then go home and gut that one. but that is the only idea i have.

 

If your going to take it to a shop and spend all that money just buy a header/silencer combo and take off all the cats!

 

sounds like they dont want to come off, mine are like that with the y-pipe to the mufflers, only thing you could do is drill some holes in the nut and bend it off the bolt then knock the bolt through the hole then get a new nut when you are done.

 

before you go do all that try lettin the car warm up, it'll get the bolts almost as hot a a torch would

 

Last time I did the exhaust manifold on a friends car, the BP blaster made the stud come out instead of the NUT

Heat, impact wrench, tap it with a punch, wack it with a hammer, but don't mushroom the head.

My trick is usually to soak the nuts for 7 days straight with PB blaster. So if I'm planning to do some work on the weekend, beforehand I'll keep re-spraying it every day for 5-7 days straight.

BTW - use anti-sieze on the new nuts & bolts. You'll thank me later

 

Well there are 2 problems with that. 1: I have a turbo II so the headers are out. and problem 2:Ii thought that if you brought it to a shop that you HAVE to have a cat under there when you leave or its against regulations. Am I wrong?

I understood what you meant until you said knock the bolt through the hole. I want to keep the studs that are on there because I dont feel like getting all new studs. Is that what you meant?

That seems like what I'm gonna have to do. I dont have a torch nor do I know anyone that has a good one that would heat it up enough. I just really dont want to be working under there with red hot exhaust. I'll end up with 3rd degree burns over half my body knowing my luck.

I've tried all that already and the PB doesnt seem to be doing anything except giving me cancer cause its so damn toxic. My friends damn pneumatic impact wrench won't even budge the bolts on the highest setting that it has so I don't know what will end up getting them off.




BTW: Thanks for all your help guys I just wanted to vent because I worked all day on my car and got absolutely nothing done. I also spent an hour trying to get the pointless trailer hitch off my car. I got 6 out of 8 bolts out but the last 2 just sit there and spin but won't come out and the trailer hitch still wont come out so I don't know what is keeping them in there.

 

Just an update, because no one ever lets us know what happened at the end of the thread. i was looking under my car and saw that there was only one bolt holding my precat to the rest of the exhaust so i took that one bolt off and dragged the exhaust out the back of the car leaving only the precat bolted to the back of the motor. with the exhaust out i used a huge cheater bar and stood 5 foot away and broke the bolts loose with ease. i then gutted the main cat, if anyone does this dont be afraid to put some force behind it. I used a 2 inch piece of pipe shoved into the cat and a 8 pound sledge to drive it through the cat...worked great. then i took the precat off and gutted it. the precat was a little harder because it is curved so i wasnt sure if i had gotten everything out. went and got some new bolts and installed everything back again. car started up fine and seems much quicker. and my temp gauge seems to be a little bit lower. i wasnt overheating or anything it never got past halfway but now it is staying even below that..its nice. Still cant blow flames though, but my boost does come on much much sooner and i can hear it 10x better. I wanted to ask you guys a question...should i be worrying about fuel cut with just gutted cats?? i still have the stock airbox and filter so i think i am safe. what do you guys think?

 

I was going to do the same as you and gut the cats, but ran into the same problems. I just took it to a shop and had them put a Racing Beat DP and presilencer. I was wondering how loud your system is now. Mine is quite loud. Oh and by the way, I was interested in the trailer hitch if you wanted to get rid of it. You could send me an email at cartdag@yahoo.com if you would like.

 

**** man i would love to get rid of the trailer hitch but cant get it off. if you can come get it off or explain to me why i can get 6 out of the 8 bolts that hold it in but the last 2 just sit there and spin even with an impact wrench and i put a piece of pipe through the trailer hitch and had a fatty jump on it and my bumper damn near touched the ground but the trailer hitch was on just as strong as ever.