Per my other thread, I am doing a full exhaust replacement, headers, cat, and catback. I have the headers decided (Hooker 2055) and the catback almost decided, but I need to find out about a cat I live in an emissions/inspection state, so I've got to run a cat

I have heard that the universal 3" cats will not fit in our cars since they are generally too short, however I have heard of welding or clamping an extra stretch of exhaust pipe to the new universal cat to make it fit...

Can someone go a bit more into detail and tell me if there's a reasonable way to make a cat that fits without welding? I'd rather not spend money if I don't need to. I've heard that certain kinds of pipe will fit right over your existing pipes and clamp right on.

I assume that pretty much anyone who has put an aftermarket 3" exhaust on an emissions-legal car has had the same decisions to make no? If not then maybe I'm missing something.

Help me become unconfused!

 

get a catco 9118 cat and any catback designed for the 86-90 TPI(might not be quite the right years, but lets say get a catback for an 87 TPI) and it will all bolt together perfectly, no welding or anything required

 

Whoa, pricey

I have a 91 Firebird with a TBI...will it still fit?

 

I am selling a 3 inch Magnaflow cat if ya might be interested....

 

Sorta. You have to drill a hole in the mounting plate on the cat and in the stock hanger, or get the correct hanger from a tpi car.

 

Meatman: Will yours bolt right up to my '91? Not sure if the design was changed or anything...

Dimented: OK, I'll consider the Catco if I can't figure out anything else, but does anyone sell a cat that bolts right up to my car and is 3"?

 

The problem isnt really the cat per say. The hanger for a 3" cat appears to be different so the cat will need some tweaking to get them to fit in the tbi cars. Or, youll need to get a different hanger.

 

I see...so either way I'm going to need to do some fabbing.

So now I COULD go with the Catco, but it costs about twice as much as a universal-fit 3" cat...so what would I need to do to get a universal cat to fit my car?

 

Probably alot more then it will to use a direct replacement. It took less then 10 minutes work to get the catco to fit. Marked the hanger and the plate on teh cat with a marker where the holes needed to be and drilled.

 

Using a universal cat vs. a direct fit is definately a case of being penny wise and pound foolish.

You'll save money on the cat, but by the time you get it in the system you'll have wasted all the "savings".

 

I completely disagree with you. You can get 3" universal cats for about $30-40 on eBay, and a piece of 3" exhaust from any parts store (even Walmart!) for another $5. Get a pair of clamps too. I'd say this is far cheaper than spending $120 on a new cat just for the convenience of almost bolting right up. Headers are already a pain in the *** job, what is another 10 minutes of cutting some pipe with a hacksaw going to hurt?

If you want your cat supported by the stock mounts, bend a piece of sheet metal or even exhaust hanger. But if you want to take it to a muffler shop, I doubt they will charge any more than $50 to weld an entire system up, complete with new hangers and mounts.

I bought my cat for $35, some clamps and a pipe, and made my own hanger. It held up until I hit something in the road during construction season which dropped my cat. and broke the muffler hanger off. I had the whole thing welded for $40, took ten minutes. They put brand new metal and rubber hangers in place. And that was only because I *had* to.



http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33629

 

i recently just got a carsound converter for $70 shipped and it cost me $30 to have it installed at the local muffler shop. i believe it was pn# 92119 which is supposed to be the most free flowing cat by them.

 

hear that Justin? it cost him $30 to have installed by a muffler shop. Do the math. $35 + $30 = 65

half of what you're gonna pay for that "bolt up" one.

 

Shipping on that universal converter is also $15, and it's free at Summit Racing for the direct fit unit, so it'd be more like $50 + $30

But I will call a few muffler shops today or tomorrrow and get a feel for what they would charge to modify and install the universal cat.

Also, question, assuming I got the universal cat, wouldn't it also need to be modified to fit the...err, "ball flange" or something, of the catback unit, as well as that of the Y-pipe?

 

Yes, youd have to have a fitting put on the cat so it will bolt up to the cat back.

 

i had a 4 inch pipe with a 3 inch ball flange made for $10

 

i ended up with a 3" universal cat., and it was really short, only 13" because i got sent the wrong part#, and it took a month before i got it, so i decided to work with it anyway rather than sending it back and waiting another month or so for *possibly* the correct one.

the cat was $65 shipped. to connect it to the catback i'd have to either lop off the female ball flange on the catback (which i couldnt see cutting up my $400 catback to hook up a $65 cat.) or get a 3" male ball and a flange so it would bolt up ... after checking with all the shops around here i could find, no one would make a 3" ball.

finally after a LOT of searching online i found a place that had a pre-fabbed 3" male ball which turned out to be $49 shipped, and napa has the 3" flange as special order for $42 ... so now i have a universal cat. a male ball and a flange so it all hooks up ... and it only cost $156 ... oh and because the cat was only 13" and i was hooking to a 2-1/4" stock y-pipe ... i needed to extend and step-down the size, another $20 for 2 special order step-down adapters from napa so all in all $176..... i could have bought a random tech cat dammit.

needless to say that next time i will buy the catco ..... or the random tech heheh

 

it's been said time and time again that it is much better to get the direct fit cat designed for your setup....at least you learned your lesson and hopefully others will see this too