Gutting cats

[Chris]

Listen to the greenie and his hippie talk about fumes....

Realistically the cats turn one bad gas into another bad gas that's not quite as harmful. They're a feel-good band-aide for the hippies. Mine rusted/fell off and I stuck a piece of pipe in. With a glasspack it's loud enough that I am careful when I get on it.

IMO, save the cash and just go straight pipe from the cat-back. It'll be louder but not nearly as obnoxious.

:rofl2:

You have no idea what you're talking about. The primary job of a catalytic converter is to convert tailpipe NOx into N and O. NOx is a MAJOR contributor to air pollution, and having personally seen the effects of a what happens to a populated area with heavy auto traffic and few emission controls, it isn't pretty. Come down on your high horse a little bud. It's not a "greenie" issue at all. It's a public health and wellness issue. I'm sure you want us to switch back to leaded fuel as well.

 

[chevy_man]

:rofl2:

You have no idea what you're talking about. The primary job of a catalytic converter is to convert tailpipe NOx into N and O. NOx is a MAJOR contributor to air pollution, and having personally seen the effects of a what happens to a populated area with heavy auto traffic and few emission controls, it isn't pretty. Come down on your high horse a little bud. It's not a "greenie" issue at all. It's a public health and wellness issue. I'm sure you want us to switch back to leaded fuel as well.

It also produces CO2, which is another greenhouse gas. The perfect non-emissions engine is a hydrogen fuel cell, given the electricity used to generate the hydrogen was produced via wind or solar power. We simply don't have the ability to make a gas engine "pollution free" as some people would like to believe since it has a cat. I like clean air as much as you, which is why I live in a place where the are no smog issues. Hell, controlling the population of LA and the like would reduce smog, but it's not economically possible.

I'm not telling him to take the cat off, in fact I even told him to leave it and take the muffler out.

 

[RHamill]

Don't gut the cats, take them off and sell them, I was told by a guy who buys metals that the cats that say AC on them are worth $50.00 and anything else is worth $100.00 a piece.

He is willing to pay me $50.00 a piece for mine if they are in alright shape.

Oh and cars have been around since the late 1890s.... Nevermind

 

[darren250r]

I assume your truck is a vortec??? If you're looking for volume you should easily be able to achieve enough volume with the cats. How is your exhaust set up now? My suggestion would be to set it up with a short magnaflow or 1 or 2 chamber flowmaster with absolutely no tailpipe after the muffler. A turndown or even a tiny section of pipe after the muffler substancially changes the sound and reduces the volume.

 

[Chris]

It also produces CO2, which is another greenhouse gas. The perfect non-emissions engine is a hydrogen fuel cell, given the electricity used to generate the hydrogen was produced via wind or solar power. We simply don't have the ability to make a gas engine "pollution free" as some people would like to believe since it has a cat. I like clean air as much as you, which is why I live in a place where the are no smog issues. Hell, controlling the population of LA and the like would reduce smog, but it's not economically possible.

I'm not telling him to take the cat off, in fact I even told him to leave it and take the muffler out.

No one has ever led the public to believe exhaust catalysts make cars "pollution free." CO2 may be a greenhouse gas, however NOx is much more concerning from an air pollution standpoint. It heavily contributes to ground-level ozone in basins and populated areas prone to inversions.

 

[MOBS]

I'm assuming his truck is just a regular OBS type where removing the cat should NOT trip the engine light? If so, you will get an awesome sound without the cat, there will be a slight noise cancellation by leaving the cat there, mostly noticeable at idle. Only reason I can think of is the cat must smooth out the airflow a bit

@Chris: I'm glad I don't live in a big city....with that said, sometimes I DO wish lead gas would return without needing licensing....lead additive is expensive and so is leaded gas at the airport due to it being a licensed fuel. That, well, I guess I'm just too lazy to change out all the valves in my leaded valve engines for the hardened valves and seats. lol

 

[TylerZ281500]

we gutted the cats on our camaro, and gutted the muffler, also put cutouts after the manifolds with ported stock manifolds, always get compliments on how its stock doesnt rob tons of power and sounds great. when you gut them its basically just like a chambered muffler, exhaust bounces around in there and gives it a louder note

 

[MOBS]

we gutted the cats on our camaro, and gutted the muffler, also put cutouts after the manifolds with ported stock manifolds, always get compliments on how its stock doesnt rob tons of power and sounds great. when you gut them its basically just like a chambered muffler, exhaust bounces around in there and gives it a louder note

May also have to do with the thicker wall of the cat, like when people used to use whatever they had laying around for exhaust, sometimes you'd see iron piping attached and man does that make an interesting sound, there is NO sound lost thru the piping. Like said before though, every little change makes a different tone/note, so just experiment with what ya got till it's the perfect sound to YOU, not us. Has anyone ever gotten a tuned exhaust system setup for a specific vehicle? I did one time and I swore I'd never go through that headache again.....it's also a wallet ache.