hey all, im gonna be getting my ehaust done soon and so i went out to have a look at whats on my car now and its all one piece. the manifold, the cat, and the exhaust is all welded together, ive never seen that before, the cats always been bolted to both the exhaust and the manifold on everycar ive seen, so whats the go with that? if i decide to get extractors and exhaust would i still be able to keep the cat or probably not? i really dont wanna get pacies or something and have to weld the cat to them. was anyone elses stocko exhaust like that?
i had mine done what DT Performance did was they left the headers and cat as is (its only a cat back) but on the exhaust side of the car (rear) they welded a flange onto the cat u might wanna ring some exhuast shops too see what they can do
The stock engine pipe assembly has the cat as part of it. There is a two bolt flange that has springs over the bolts behind the cat. There is another join under the LH rear axle that has a clamp. When fitting extractors, the engine pipes are cut and the extractors either slip over the original pipe and are clamped, or they have flanges that are welded to the pipe and bolt to the extractors. Some brands have a Y pipe that bolts to the front of the cat after it has been cut off and a flange welded on.
well i think i will have to get the whole lot done new as it is all 10 years old now and starting to get quite rusty, the cat isn't looking too healthy itself and i wouldnt be surprised if it had a hole or on the top of it. how much life you reckon the cat has left in it as the car has only done 148,000km?
In theory, a cat will last over 400 000kms on a properly maintained and tuned vehicle. They will lose their effectiveness over time more due to contaminants than wearing out. Get it tested, a simple temperature test will do. Get the car to operating temp, keep the revs up over 2500rpm and using a laser thermometer, measure the front and the rear of the cat. The rear should be at least 10% hotter than the front. A reading at the front of over 300 deg C will be normal. If the front is hotter than the rear, it will be partially blocked and need replacing.
