Well, I have a 97, and that means i got 2 cats and i turns out that my driver side cat, the one that is all smased up in the engine compartment, is fairly clogged. I really havent noticed anything wrong with it, but then again, its been clogged since i bought the car i think. Which, was a year ago , yeah i know, thats not good. Anyways, its pissing me off cuz im getting horrible gas mileage, like 13mpg city and 16highway, and i dont drive it like i stole it, seriously. So, im assuming that its because of the clogged cat. Anywho, onto my question, I dont have money right now to buy a new one or to buy a replacement y-pipe with new cats, cant do it. So can i gut both of them, or can i cut both of them off and weld in two pieces of straight tubing??? I dont want the "whistle in a can" effect that i have heard about by gutting them, but i dont know if i can weld new pipes in for both of them. So any info and help that can be given to me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

dont GUT them.
get an off road pipe, i did, you never have to worry about it clogging up.

jesse

 

where did you get it at and how did you put it in?

 

when i did headers, i did the single cat conversion, and bought an ORP from thunderracing.com it bolts right in.

jesse

 

Ok, well, i dont have money for headers right now, i have my stock manifolds, thats the problem. Its easy as hell to do it to the single cat stuff, but the dual cat, thats another story.

 

Put in a true dual setup. You will love it! I'll post
the dyno results tomorrow for mine. No headers
just OBD II legal catalytics true 2.5" pipes all the
way back.

http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/td02.jpg
http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/td03.jpg
http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/td04.jpg
http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/td05.jpg
http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/td06.jpg
http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/td07.jpg
http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/td08.jpg
http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/td09.jpg

 

What lead you to believe that your CAT is clogged? If it's just the gas mileage, don't be to hasty. If you do a search I think you'll fine about half the 97 owners get bad mileage and half don't. Mine was only 11mpg before I did the plugs and wires. Now it's only 13mpg. It has always run fine and produces 250rwhp on the dyno.
Take another look at the drivers side CAT. Gutting that one has got to be a major PITA.
If you do decide to gut it your going to have to get an O2 sim for that side or live with the "Engine" light. The 97's have four O2 sensors. One before and after each CAT.

Good Luck

 

truedualws6


how much did that setup run ya?

looks pretty sweet

 

Well, i already have O2 sims because i had the SES light and I had to get tested for emissions, so i got them to make the comp think i was all good, cuz in Illinois if you are OBD-II, they only hook you up to a comp. Anyways, before i had the O2 sims, i had my car at my mechanic that i totally trust, and he told me that the drivers side cat was clogged. So, thats how i know. And yeah, im figuring that the drivers cat will be a major PITA, but, it could probably be done, so, who knows. Anybody else with suggestions. And, i would love a true dual setup, but the reason i am asking this is because i am a poor college student that has NO money and wants to fix this and make the car sound a little meaner at the same time. But with very, very little, or no money involved.

 

The cheapest (free) route for you is to gut the CATS. Realize though that it might sound raspy. That's the cost of free.

Dan

 

I can't imagine doing this without removing the exhaust, and you already have the sims., so why not just go with a piece on straight pipe.

Let us no if your gas mileage improves after you do this.

 

Yeah, ive heard that if you just gut the cats, then it sounds different than if you have a straight pipe in place of them. So im leaning towards that, but the problem is that i need to make 2 straight pipes, not just one. And i dont know how i would do it for the driver side cat, the one in the engine compartment, that one would be real difficult i would think.

 

$1,200 (the OBDII cats are $225 each)

Expensive but something I have always wanted to do.

 

jesus h christ, thats crazy for a manifold back deal. But, that system does look pretty good, it looks the way it should have come from the factory. but, sadly, that is WAY north of my price range for doing this.

 

I think basically all that im asking, is, has anyone put off road pipes on a 96-97 car with the stock maifolds and y-pipe???