Upgrading the exhaust in a 89 Firebird with a 350. Went from stock exhaust with dual cats to Edelbrock shorties with a single cat. Was cutting out the cats to recycle and found one was gutted and the other was intact. Would that affect how the engine runs as the cats are before they merge? Since one side was free flowing and one side had a full cat to go thru.....

Thanks In Advance
Bill

 

Maybe at WOT a little. Cats are much more free flowing than many think.

 

Exhaust like water and electricity is going to take the path of least resistance. I dont think this would effect your vehicle in anyway but I bet one cat saw alot more heat than the other.

 

Sorry to dump on you but you went from a dual-cat high flowing system to Edelbrock headers and a single cat, effecting killing your exhaust flow in my opinion. Edelbrock headers are some of the worst design, and now you're dumping 8 cylinders into one cat instead of 4 cylinders into two cats.

Now, about one cat gutted and the other still intact, it will make the engine unbalanced but probably not enough to notice. As Cflick said, you'd only see it on a dyno at wide open throttle.