Anyone ever experience the following...?

I had some Crawford hi-flo cats installed on my car. I also have Borla headers and the NISMO catback exhaust. Last time I took my car in to the shop to have the Kinetix v. 4 plenum installed, they found that there were actually holes on both cats where mounting brackets were attached to each cat.

Apparently the mounting brackets connect to the car. Supposedly, there must be so much movement in the engine when driving the car that it pulled the brackets right off the cats causing there to be two holes on the cats.

The shop I was at patch welded the cats to repair the holes and welded the cats back to the bracket at a couple of stronger points.

It's been okay for about a month but I swear I hear an exhaust leak underneath the car again. I'm thinking it's happened again.

Has anyone ever used the Stillen Engine Dampener ?http://www.stillen.com/Sportscars_de...d=55283&page=1
I am hoping that this might solve my problem because I really like the cats and would like to keep them.

Anyone have experience with this?

 

The engine shouldn't have caused that. The stock cats are connected in the same way and I havne't heard any other problems with this. Sounds like you either got a bad pair or there is something weird going on.

 

Hold on a sec. I believe that cat support bracket is connected to the tranny, not the frame of the car. That means the cats would move along with the motor/tranny, not fight it. Is this not correct? My Kinetix cats don't have mounts for that bracket, so we just removed the bracket completely.

Regarding the engine torque damper, I'll give you my unbiased opinion: buy it now! Seriously, though, it drastically reduced engine movement and made clutch take-up so much smoother and more manageable, especially when starting from a stop. I give it two thumbs up, and highly recommend it.

 

I have never heard of anything like this before either. The flex pipes in the exhaust system after the cats help with movement, and the way the cats bolt up shouldn't be an issue at all. Hm, that is a very interested and probably issolated incident. I've had no problems with my crawfords. how long did you have them before you had that issue?

 

I've had the Crawfords for maybe 3-4 months. I track my car doing car club driving events--- maybe the extra stress handling around a track had something to do with it??

 

Thanks for the advice. Think I'll try it!

 

anyone know if the stillen engine dampner is made in black or polished silver? i couldn't stand just having one red part under my hood

thanks!

 

The thing is fairly hidden, so it doesn't stick out at all when you lift the hood. It's largely covered by hoses and such. Here are a couple of pics of mine installed:

http://www.spintronic.com/gallery/vi...0ztorquedamper

Can you spot it?

 

lol, ok -- point taken

guess i'll go pick up one of these and a grounding kit (need to calm my wacked out idle down a bit)