hollowed out cat
August-2nd-2004, 08:44 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 113
hollowed out cat
has anyone heard of this or has done this... takin off ur cat and hollowing it out to make it less restrictive? is it a good or bad idea or is it really worth it. i just heard about this today so im tryin to find out more about it cause idk how it would do with the 2.0l engine....
August-2nd-2004, 09:09 PM
#2
The man behind the mask
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Birmingham, AL
Posts: 11,572
it will be a fairly decent FREE gain. Be VERY careful when removing the nuts that hold the cat to the manifold. I broke 2 and stripped 2 on mine when I went to install my header. It caused me to swap headers for the obx 4-1 that eliminates the first cat all together. Also, you will throw a CEL and run rich without a proper MIL fix.
August-2nd-2004, 10:06 PM
#5
Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Lansing, MI
Posts: 166
ya, you can do that, but most of the time it makes your exhaust pretty raspy, its usually better to find some sort of testpipe, the exhaust tone is a lot nicer with a test pipe than a hollowed cat... but its free, and you cant argue with free 
August-3rd-2004, 12:16 PM
#9
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Gainesville, FL
Posts: 398
My wife went back to work, and she's working opposite shifts from me, now I'm lucky if I get to drive the car once a week. She really could care less about making it any faster, so I decided to focus on finishing my Explorer since I'm tired of driving my 97 Astro cargo van (company car) everywhere. I'm ready to put the motor back in it, but I'd really like to do my heads and cam on it first, and that's gonna run me close to $1500..... you get the picture....
August-3rd-2004, 01:02 PM
#12
The man behind the mask
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Birmingham, AL
Posts: 11,572
i used an angled die grinder and a carbide bit. Drill as far done the center as you can. Turn it upside down and do the same thing. Then take an air hammer and cut a big X across the cat. This should cause everything to crumble towards the center. Then i took some needlenose pliers and pulled out the metal mesh weave that was holding it all in. Came out in 2 huge clumps.
