Lately I've been having some symptoms of a clogged cat, so today as I was changing my oil, I figured I'd unbolt it and give it the ol' crowbar enema. I soaked the bolts in WD-40, and started trying to back the bolts out. Well, they wouldn't budge with normal leverage, so I tried some more persuasive techniques. I planted my feet firmly onto the exhaust pipe, grabbed the wrench with both hands, and gave a mighty tug. Such a mighty tug, in fact, that I snapped the bolt like a twig.

Now, I have a Hooker cat-back floating somewhere in the mail. It's been on backorder from Jeg's for over a month. I figured I'd leave it well enough alone, untill my cat-back arrived, then I'd finish taking it apart to swap out the stock one.

I thought that the flange at the cat was pretty much welded shut with rust, so I thought nothing of driving around with only one bolt in it. Well, one little spurt at WOT took care of that rust-weld, so now I have a horrific sounding exhaust leak.

Tomorrow, (Sunday), I'm gonna have to replace a broken tranny mount. While I'm under there, I'm thinking about just removing the stock cat-back completely untill my Hooker arrives. Question is, besides being ear splitting loud, is there gonna be any drawbacks to doing this? People run cut-outs open all the time, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to do this for a while untill my catback gets here.

I also have a LT4 KM I just ordered, since I'll probably be getting just a little bit of false knock on the stocker.

 

it'll be fine. i had a buddy in highschool that owned a truck that ran stright headers no problems.

 

Other than run the chance of a noise pollution ticket, I'd say no. It's gonna stink and rattle the crap out of the interior though.

 

when i got my car it had a silencer in place of the cat w/ the open borla and it sounded really quiet. took it off and replaced it w/ a cut out and i havent closed it since.

 

Yeah, I was driving it around yesterday, and the exhaust would flex sometimes at the flange, and sounded really mean at idle. That's sorta what inspired me to do it. I'll probably leave it like that untill my Hooker gets here, (if it ever does).

I'm leaving right now to go pick up my tranny mount at Advance, and I'll do the exhaust while I'm under there.

 

Heh, I already did the open y-pipe experiment. Got a gutted cat so it sounds REAL mean at idle. I mean you can feel the sound thumping on your chest like somebody's punching you. BUT, it sounds like a damn dump truck at anything above idle. Hard acceleration sounds like an old farm truck about to blow its guts all over the road. However, open exhaust is something everyone must try at least once .

 

Welp, I'm deaf.

The other bolt came off with hardly any trouble after I drowned it in rust-eater. Actually got it off in one piece. I drove around with just the y-pipe and untouched cat for about ten minutes, and my ears are seriously ringing. My cat looks like it's in good condition, I didn't see any place on it that looked like it could be clogged. So for the sake of my ears I left it alone. Still can't bolt the pipe back up to it though. I tried and tried to get that bolt that I broke off out of the flange, but it just won't budge. I'll have to drill it out sometime, and get a couple more bolts to replace the rusty ones. Probably will wait untill my cat-back gets here, but I may change my mind after a few days of driving like this.

I seriously don't see how people drive around with open long tubes on daily driven cars. That would have to be even louder!