OK my Cats are clogged really bad. I need to know 2 things. I have a 97 Formula where are the cats located, how are they attached at bothends, and how do i gut them?

Oh and will running with no exaust just headers hurt my engine?

 

LOL at your topic line.

Personally I prefer a Randall Model 8 "Trout and Bird Knife", like the one Francis G. Powers carried on his U2 flights.

 

Look under the car on the passenger side, you'll see one of the cats right there. The other one is on the driver's side connected directly to the exhaust manifold, it's kind of hard to see without your car off the ground.

To gut the cat, typically you get a hammer and a metal rod, then hammer the metal rod into the cat and break up all that crap inside. I'm not sure if you can do this with a dual cat y-pipe though, I can't remember if the cats are welded on or not. Most people on this board with a dual cat setup have an exhaust shop weld straight pipes in place of the cats instead of gutting them.

 

Where do i find someone that will weld then on isnt that ilegal as hell/.

 

Yes, it is illegal, but sometimes you can find a shop that will do it anyway.

 

Yep it's illegal, but i'm sure a speed shop will do it for you. I got mine done

 

if you got dual cats dont gut them, your gonna loose performance and you WILL throw an code (SES Light). The only way you can gut ur cats is if you get o2 sims, the cats are welded to the Y pipe but you can just drop the whole Y pipe from your manifold and exaust and gut it that way (thats how i did it). I take it you have a 96 or higher f-body, this means you have ODBII. OBDII cars have sensors behind the cat and they will know if the cats are gutted. Id just get new high flow cats, but if your broke, get the Sims and gut the beasts. Hope this helps

 

O and I wouldnt run your car without the y pipes, Not only will your intake be taking in hotter air, but the massive backfire isnt great for your valves, not to mention you wouldnt last 5 min without getting pulled over and probably arrested. That loud !

 

The caprice i had i ran just headers for about 1 month. i think i caused hearing loss lol but i didnt once get pulled over and i scared the crap out of every import in this state

 

well take my word, ive taken off my Y pipe and ran the car, sounds like a NASCAR, i wouldnt last ten seconds without being pulled over

 

So the opinion is gut hte cats on a dual cat setup and loose power

 

No, i wouldnt do it unless you get the sims, ur cars gonna run realy rich, u get get poor MPG and your SES light will always be on

 

I don't know if there is more than one way, they never stop clawing at me long enough for me to find out.


J/K

Actually, the easiest way I ever did it was to buy a new cat, beat the hell out of the "emmisions cake" and shake the nasty stuff out. Then find a friend who has a welder, and have it welded in.

 

So if you do the sims then you gain power?

 

you don't necessarily lose power gutting the cats, but it does tend to shift the power band towards the top end. I think thats good cause I can't get traction anyway.

Because its a dual cat car, the rear O2 sensors are designed to let the computer know if the cats are functioning correctly or not. If you gut the cats it will throw a code (but not make any difference in performance) until you put O2 sensor simulators in place of the rear sensors. Be prepared though as O2 sensor sims are not cheap. (~$80)

Running open headers probably wouldn't be a good idea as there won't be any place to put the O2 sensors...at least one goes in the Y-pipe on dual cat cars (and one does even on single cat cars). With no O2 sensor input your gonna have to do some serious tuning in open loop mode to make your car run properly...either that or your open-to-the-air O2 sensors are going to start running your car REALLY rich.