I have a bad miss and manifolds are glowing red i as about this and i had a couple of responces that it was plugged cats now i was wondering what affect it will have if i just elimanate them or hollow them out. i have a 96 z28

 

First of all since you have a miss, it's likely your running rich for what ever reason. This rich condition probably caused the cat problem. So removing the cats will eliminate a lack of power issue and glowing but probably won't do anything for the rich condition or missing.

As far as removing them, it depends on the inspection in your area. Some areas like here only do a visual. If your area does a sniffer, you will probably need working cats.

If you remove or gut them you will get a SES for cat efficiency therefore you will need simulators for the after cat O2s. I would suggest gutting them for now and fix the remainder of your running condition. Then decide if you replace them or get O2 simulators later.

 

I am real sure it is running rich what would be some of the reasons for this

 

if you are misfiring
and you are running rich, it is because when the air/fuel mixture does not fire, it gets sent through the exhaust past your oxygen sensors, since the oxygen did not react with the fuel it is still present, the O2 sensors read this as a lean condition and the computer richens up the fuel mixture, its a vicious cycle

find the cause of the misfire, remove or replace the cats, since you have a 96 and you are misfiring you should have a check engine light, if the misfire is constant enough to burn up your cats, which it sounds like it is, your check engine light will probably be flashing


judging by the information you have given i'm going to suspect the cause of the misfire to be a bad plug, bad wire or a fault in the opti cap

 

I think my Cats fell off some time ago. FLORIDA= No Inspection