Cat Converter

[studdyhalllooser]

my neighbor bought a 91 festy the other day (so jelous!). he isnt getting enough exhaust flow....slowly revs and you can hear the air wineing in the cat converter. he was asking me if it was "ok" to just cut the cat off and run a pipe where it was....i wasnt sure so im askin yall on here..can he do it and not mess any electrical stuff up? (just unplugging it i guess is what he wants to do) or does he need to re route the wire to something else?

[gomer]

New cats are relatively cheap ,,, about $100 at auto parts stores but I'd try a junkyard first ,, no-one else will be wanting it so it may be cheap... just cut the pipe on either side and deal with the nuts/bolts when you can get to a workbench with a vise... with the small displacement of your engine and the quality of most cats you will NOT see a performance boost between a straight pipe, a gutted cat or a good flowing cat. If you can't afford even a junkyard unit it would be best to gut the existing unit ,, just hammer out the front and back screens with a mallet and a length of rebar, leave any o2 sensor(s) intact and in place...

[miami man]

converter

i got a converter installed for $135.00 here in st.Louis mo

[oxbrain]

wasn't the o2 sensor mounted to the exhaust manifold or are there several?

[gomer]

My 93 has a 1 wire o2 sensor on the manifold only but as I am not an expert on all years of production I let the insinuation in the original post that a 2nd sensor existed and wire(s) might have to be re-routed slide on by...

can he do it and not mess any electrical stuff up? (just unplugging it i guess is what he wants to do) or does he need to re route the wire to something else?

[rotinaj13]

yes you can put a pipe in place of it. no it will not mess any thing up. make sure there are no holes in the exhaust and the muffler works. for back preasure issues do not put a glass pack muffler on it. a high flow works good. but if it flows to good then you run the risk of burning valves or a piston. noting electricle will get messed up. you can do that and run the stock muffler and be fine.

[studdyhalllooser]

ok....mine is acting up now. when it warms up you can hear a whine or a low pitch whisle. i dont have the money to do anything with it right now, can i take it off and hollow it out or someting?

[studdyhalllooser]

oh...and has anyone else hollowed out theirs? how hard is it to do?

[94aspireb3jorge]

It requires some muscle to gut the cat. I did with a very large pry bar and hammer. Exhaust actually purrs a little bit. No noticeable power gain. It just free revs a little quicker.