OK, as many of you know, im a broke college kid. Recently, ive been noticing some rattling from my exhaust and a slight loss of power...could be the crappy michigan weather. I checked out the rattling and its coming from my cat. Good thing is, i happen to have a 3 inch piece of stainless steel exhaust pipe sitting around which will perfectly fit where the cat is. So I have 2 questions.\

1. I know its hard to say for sure, but how much louder will replacing the cat really make my exhaust...will it be a noticable difference?

2. What do i have to do about the O2 sensors? Can I just leave it where it is?

And just to avoid the response about emissions, we dont care about that here in the great state of michigan

 

The easiest solution I found was to cut the cat out, beat the guts out with an iron bar, and weld it back in place. The sound difference is noticable, but not dramatic. The power gain is very noticable though, motor seems to wind up faster.

 

i already have a nice piece of stainless im going to put in place of it, way easier than cleaning it out. the O2 sensor isnt in the cat, the body of it can be cut out real easily

 

I just traded in my 96' and I remember them extending the warranty for the cat until 12/30/06. Not sure exactly what the models and years were.