how tough are cat guts?
Discussion
any ideas? i want to decat my MR2T but the turbo bolts straight onto the cat and the bolts there are notoriously difficult to get off. Also, the decat pipes are £200 and i cant afford them so what i thought id do is uncouple the bottom (and easier end) of the cat and just knock out the cat element solving both problems at once. The only snag really is the strength of the cat material - is it tough? will i end up stressing teh turbo or manifold bolts too much?
Noooo!
The CAT eliment is a fragile matrix with hard crystal bits in, if you fracture it you'll get little bits in the baffels and it'll tear them to pieces, meaning you'd need a whole new exhaust.
And as Eliot said, turbo setups are pretty carefully designed and it doesn't take much to throw them out.
I have a de-Cat on my car, but it lowers the power and the extra pressure means the gaskets keep blowing and the baffels last a couple of years and it's time for a new exhaust! Though for me the benifits outweigh the costs, so it's usually off unless I'm at a strict noise limit track day.
The CAT eliment is a fragile matrix with hard crystal bits in, if you fracture it you'll get little bits in the baffels and it'll tear them to pieces, meaning you'd need a whole new exhaust.
And as Eliot said, turbo setups are pretty carefully designed and it doesn't take much to throw them out.
I have a de-Cat on my car, but it lowers the power and the extra pressure means the gaskets keep blowing and the baffels last a couple of years and it's time for a new exhaust! Though for me the benifits outweigh the costs, so it's usually off unless I'm at a strict noise limit track day.
Ive done it before on an MR2.
They are TOUGH !!!!
You can remove the cat section from the turbocharger ( well, thats the theory..practise is a lot harder ), and once removed, the cat core is pretty easy to get out.
If you try to bash it out through the 2.5" hole at the base where the exhaust bolts to it, you will be there a very very long time.
Then again, removal of the cat section usually results in sheared bolts too...
Either way, all those engines are a nightmare ( GT4, MR2 etc etc )
They are TOUGH !!!!
You can remove the cat section from the turbocharger ( well, thats the theory..practise is a lot harder ), and once removed, the cat core is pretty easy to get out.
If you try to bash it out through the 2.5" hole at the base where the exhaust bolts to it, you will be there a very very long time.
Then again, removal of the cat section usually results in sheared bolts too...
Either way, all those engines are a nightmare ( GT4, MR2 etc etc )
I think it took us about 3 hours to do it...
Initially it came out ok, but once we started to compress parts of teh honeycomb structure that didnt break up, it became hard as rock, and chiselling had little effect...
I ended up using an SDS hammer drill and drilling as much of it up as I could, beating with chisels, anything I could get my hands on.
Removing the housing from the turbo really is the most sensible option.
Initially it came out ok, but once we started to compress parts of teh honeycomb structure that didnt break up, it became hard as rock, and chiselling had little effect...
I ended up using an SDS hammer drill and drilling as much of it up as I could, beating with chisels, anything I could get my hands on.
Removing the housing from the turbo really is the most sensible option.
Gassing Station | Engines & Drivetrain | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff