YES and NO, it means you hollowed the GUTS out of the cat. So you can pass a visual inspection. YOu are left with just the shell.

If you do not live in an emissions state, you can cut off your cat and replace it with a straight pipe.

 

Gutted cat means that the internal "honeycomb" stuff has been removed creating an empty shell.If I could get away with it I would but my state has strict emission testing.Usually you can bust all the stuff out with a pipe/bar or what have you.Make sure you remove the O2 sensor and then replace afterward to prevent damage to it.On some vehicles a "gutted" cat could throw a CEL.

 

Beat me to it..Ha Ha!!!

 

Yes, that is what a gutted cat is. However, I should have said mine is cut out and straight piped. I'm weight exempt on emissions. (2500 HD) My bad!

 

I don't know much about muffler's as I don't have one but I seem to have noticed that with age, my exhaust has gotten a little more aggressive and throatier. The cat is the next thing to go on my truck.

 

no that means that there's nothing inside of the cat. cut it off and beat the hell outta the insides=gutted cat!

 

Can you get by w/o a cat in NC?? I'm down the road from you in Newport btw. I'm assuming you mean you will gut it? I figure we will eventually have exhaust analyses around here like they have to do in Raleigh and Charlotte!
Steve

 

Removed, or, just blow the insides out. It is possible to remove the exhaust off the back of it, use a pipe, large bar, other sharp pointy stick, to break up the substrate inside it, then just rev the engine a couple times to blow it out.

If your area does emissions testing, your truck may not pass with a gutted cat. (though it would still pass the visual inspection, as it 'appears' to still be there.) If there isn't testing/inspection where you live, you can do whatever ya want.

 

i live in nc and have had no problems with my gutted cat

 

I've seen some officer's look under trucks before...not sure if they're lookin at exhaust or for drugs. I was just gonna take my old cat after I cut it off, cut it in half and take everything out then put the 2 halves back together on the new piece of pipe to make it look like it's there.