OK, my cat is causing alot of pressure in my manifold. My buddy has his own garage and was saying i had probably 40% air flow getting through....he said the CAT is definalty clogged, and i know it is cuz i can hear it rattleing all the time.

So my exhaust goes like this....I cut out the stock exhuast, and ran a cherry bomb in its place....its clamped on so i can take it right off.....i have a 4 foot piece of threaded rod....its only about 1/2in thick.....i put it in the exhaust (without muffler on) and theres a bend right after the cat, and my threaded rod is getting caught...or so it seems.....How far back does the honey comb go? i might be on the honey comb, but i dont know cuz it felt solid.


So this was the plan, put the threaded rod in, pound it around, start truck, and rev it to get the pieces out. Will that work? or is there potential for honeycomb to get back into the motor and mess something up?

Im trying to do with without taking out the cat, or having to cut it.....My flange bolts where it cponnects to the headers are rusted to nothing....doesnt even really have heads on the bolts anymore, so i dont want to mess with that.


All in all, whats the best way to hollow the cat without taking cat off or cutting it?

Will the thread rod idea work or would that damage something.

Thanks for the imput....need this done quick cuz i can feel power loss and 168 miles to my last tank is not good......

 

That's how I did it on my old Mazda, worked for me. Good luck.

 

Another thing, take your o2 sensor out of your cat and try breaking some of it up that way too.

 

i figure ill need the 02 sensor out anyway, because if i break it all up, it will clog up and wont be able to start i would think, and ive heard stories of people busting up the 02 sensor....


and with a hollow cat is it worth getting a new 02 sensor? i figure mines filled with carbon, since its got 207K on it (original) or would buying a new one not do anything for me sicne ill have to do the non fouler.

 

Non fouler trick is for the REAR O2 sensor, which has zero impact on how the engine runs. If your Pre-Cat O2 is original, replace it with an NTK, or Denso unit, and disconnect the battery for five minutes or so to reset the PCM. (actually, your truck doesn't even HAVE a rear O2 sensor......)

Take you muffler off, bust up the insides of the cat as best you can, both from the back side, and thru the sensor hole in front, start the engine, and rap on it a couple times to blow that crap outta there. Repeat until you can't see any more in the cat/pipes. Put in the new O2 sensor.

 

awesome....ill get it done today.....ill before and after videos on the sounds.

 

That's how i did mine, only I cut everything after the cat off to make beating the guts out with a prybar easier. You'd be surprised at the amount of material inside, when I thought I was done, it turned out about 30% or so was still there (had to get a flashlight, and another case of beer to figure this out). Also, those last few bits are a royal PITA to get out.

Good Luck

 

as long as i get the bulk....im sure the rest of it will enventually break up and fall out....

 

ya might want to watch that i did that same thing with my ford probe and a chunk got lodged and i had no flow whatsoever, you can go to napa which is where i got mine and buy "band clamps" they are like $15 depending on where your at, but with these you can cut the cat completely out, gut it and put it back in with the clamps, lots of people with diesels including me use these. http://www.napaonline.com/Search/Det...416_0282438468 just make sure you have the clamp centered otherwise you'll blow the pipes apart.

 

That was my mindset: I left 2 large chunks in because they were eluding my prybar very efficiently.

They didnt break up on their own as expected though, they chose to instead blow around and plug the exit pipe (which was very annoying), so i had to figure a way to break them into smaller pieces.

After many fruitless stabs with the prybar; a stroke of genius: I took a small sledge (3lbs) and tapped the cat (externally). It made a high pitched bell sound. I did this for about 5 mins, keeping the pitch as high as possible. I then looked in there with my flashlight, and ta-da, they were much smaller.

I have yet to figure out if this was due to the high resonance frequency of the housing (which possibly caused cracks in the ceramic catalyst scaffolding), the repeated impact shock of being bounced up and down a lot, or a combination of these two forces.... or maybe it was black magic. I really dont care much about the physics behind it, I just know it worked. If those last few bits give you as much trouble as mine did, this may work for you.

Your cat is, however, of a different design than mine (changed in 98 I believe), so the frequency of sound emitted would be different, and thus, if my first theory on why it worked for me is true, it may not work in your case.