there are no shops willing to replace my cats for straight pipe. i wanna get rid of 'em but i need to do it at home. im wonderin if anyone here's done it so they tell me exactly what they did/used, where they cut, etc. i dont think i can just put a piece of straight pipe. it has too many bends and looks more complicated than what i originally thought.

thanx

 

You can put a piece of straight pipe where the cats were. All you have to do is get 2 pieces of pipe from your local parts store and some clamps and a couple of adapters to outside diameter. Then just cut the cats out, cut the pipe to fit, slide it on and put calmps on it. It's a pretty easy job. Course if you have emissions you should probably keep the cats...

 

i thought about doing that, but the part of the pipes where the cats begin has bends. i risk a major leak if i cut it right at the bends. i wanna do it way before like somewhere on the part of the pipe that runs along the side. i wont be able to use straight pipe anymore, so it'll have to be bent.

here's a pic. the back of the cats is no problem. it's the front that im worried about.

 

That makes it a bit more difficult. Welding would be required to seal up around that bend. You could put the pipe in there and then take it to a welding shop or whatever (if an exhast shop won't do it) and get it welded up.

 

i'll have to try cutting as close to the cats as possible. no way i'ma spend money on 2 new cats when i dont even need 'em.

 

i just used flex exaust tubing when i removed my cat. trust me rent sone sort of cutter I.E plasma cutter much easyer than huge hack saw and your dad denting the floor pans

 

i ended up renting a cutter, cutting off the cats then takin it to a shop to get 2 straight pipes welded. i love the sound of the exhaust now and it feels like i gained a lil bit of power.

 

Yep, exhaust sounds better w/o cats. That's why all my cars don't have them....

 

thought i'd post a couple pics...

 

2

 

Looks good and alot cleaner

 

My dual cats are now clogged and/or broke up inside(they rattle). How or Who did the welding of the pipes for you? looks good since I checked the price of new cats at like $300+.

 

yea i didnt feel like paying big bucks for somethin i dont need. after i cut the pipes i went to a local small shop that does all kinds of work including exhaust. they took it right in. took measurements, bent the pipes and welded 'em (also welded a new hanger). total came out to $60. then i went ahead and painted the pipes for a better look.

 

Did you car have an air pump? If so what did you do with the air tubes that went to the cats?

Please advise ASAP.

Thanks,
Jason

 

Well the easiest way to get around that is to remove the smog pump altogether. It doesn't really serve a purpose anyways. It's easy to remove, if you have a serpetine setup you'll need a shorter belt, do a search and I'm sure you could find the PN easily. If it's a V belt you won't need anything, you'll just remove one of the belts. Then you'll also have to remove the lines going into the manifolds and put pipe plugs in their place. I did it a long time ago on my camaro. Cleans up the engine bay and gives you a bunch more room to work. My current project is removing the rest of the smog/cc carb stuff and the power steering (switching to a S10 manual box) and getting rid of the AC (since it doesn't work and even if it did I always have the windows down) so my engine bay is gonna be really open.

 

I would like to keep the smog pump since it is just a matter of time before emission laws are in place and force me to go get new cats. When that happens I don't want to be doing alot of extra work to get the car emission legal.

Has anyone let the air pump on and closed or diverted the lines somehow?

Thanks again,

 

You could just cut them off and let them blow. Wouldn't hurt anything and it'd be a lot easier than plumbing them into the exhaust. If you wanted to plumb them in you'd need to find some mild steel fittings (which might be difficult) to use and drill a hole(s) in the exhaust pipe then weld them in. Kind of difficult though and don't plan on removing the AIR lines after a few months when they're all rusted up (since you have to use mild steel unless you know how to weld stainless to mild steel).