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Cat gutting?


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Could someone please explaine how I would go about gutting the cat on my turbo XT? I removed the second cat, and until I can get a custome downpipe bought/made I would like to gut the first cat. How do I get in there, past the two 90 degree bends, to punch out the guts?

 

Thanks!

RedLance

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I've heard of a couple people taking the exhaust off and putting a coat hanger down the inlet, then picking out the guts. Personally, this would take way to long. I used a die grinder and cut a good sized flap in it. Its still a PIA to get the stuff out, and welding it back together is touchy. The metal is 2 layers thick and different gauges to boot.

Rob

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The best thing I heard was to just drill about a 1-1.5" hole through it. It's just as effective, easier than gutting the whole thing, and won't disturb the airflow as much as an empty cat. Plus if it gets inspected and a cop decided to knock on it, it won't sound hollow.

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I've gutted 3 cats now. Used a big 1" chizel, crow bar and 5lb BFH. Just pummel the inerds and break it up into small enough chunks that they come out the ends. Most annoying part is getting the metal screen mesh out the one end. I usally end up just pounding it out with the crow bar untill you can grab it and yank it out. Once that's out the rest of the catalyst honeycome junk comes out pretty easily. I recomend a dust mask. That stuff isnt friendly on the lungs :D Usally only took me a half hour to gut one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yeah, except I'm talking about the cat in the down pipe on my Turbo. There are 90 degree bends on either side of the cat. How am I supposed to get a crow bar bast the bend to knock the innards out?

 

I just removed the second cat, which would have been easy to gut. We don't have inspections here in Nebraska anymore.

 

RedLance

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step 1. cut the cat off leaving the 90 degree bends

step 2. get a piece of exhaust tubing the same diameter and length of the cat

step 3. weld in the piece of exhaust tubing where the cat used to be

step 4. put downpipe back on

step 5. enjoy all the added horsepower:banana:

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I did mine this way, similar to what Baccaruda was saying. I removed the heat shield from the bottom of the pipe, directly under the cat, it's about 3" X 4", has a few (sloppy) spot welds, very easy to remove and I was able to leave all the upper heat shield in place. Next I cut three cuts into the bottom of the pipe with a air chisel and bent it open, this gave me about a 2" X 2" hole to work through with direct access to the lower side of the cat guts. Busted everything our and then welded it back together. It took all of about 30 minutes (plus R&R) and looks like it hasn't been touched. You can't tap on it either since it has a heat shield all the way around it:brow:

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The other thing that you do, is you either go to a junkya5rd and get a downpipe, or you take yours off, and take it in to an exhaust shop, and tell them that you need one make with these flanges, but without the cat, and tell them it is for your race car, they can legally make it for "off road use only" but they can not install it.

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