Hello all,

I've been wanting to do this for a while and finally did it. I bought a extra pair of catalytic converters($75) a few months back, and finally took the time to remove(gut) the secondary portion. Stock converter has 2 bulges, primary & secondary. Using several different drill bits & chisels, alot of elbow grease & 1 hour a piece, I was able remove the honeycomb matrix of the secondaries. What a big mess though. I'm going to take off my raspy test pipes and install my "new, resonated, high-flow" cats. I just bought a ATI Procharger from overzealous & will be installing the whole set-up next week.

 

How did you manage to not mess up the primary? Can you give us a bit more on this, as I'm tired of my kracenfix cats......

 

nice job, thats exactly what i did...the install actually took longer for me than the gutting process! cheers

 

why not gut the primary to?

 

vfr350:
The primary section is a few inches(4-5in) away from the 2ndary. The primary "pretty" far away. I used my leaf blower to blow the remaining dust out of it.
I used several long drill bits to put 7-10 holes in the middle of the honeycomb material. I pretty much ruined 4 of them doing it. They get really hot drilling metal & I melted the tips. No biggie. Also I used a 3/4in spade bit the spin likie a madman all around the inside. Very violent, but very effective breaking up the bigger pieces. Then I used a chepo $10 chisel from Home Depot & chiseled the honeycomb material away from the side walls of the cats. Then some needlenose pliers to pull out the broken pieces.

Methane:
I still wanted some catalytic effects.(help the envirnoment)
The gas smell, from my test pipes, was unpleasant.
I'll pass emmisions with just the primaries!
Also, it will defintely pass the visual inspection too.

 

install the cats a few days before the procharger, and tell us how they sound!!!
ps: did you use masonry bits?

 

install: i'll try

bits: no, just regular woodworking bits(i have a million), with regular drill.

 

thank you sir!

 

x2

 

would it be a good thing to gut out the cats since im installing a turbonetics kit? can you gut out the primary and seconday without a "check engine" light? just wondering...i live in texas, emissions is no problem here...

 

yes, you can gut both out...but the CEL coming on, I believe, is dependent on the year/build date of your car. My 2003 G35 was bulit in, Sept 2002, I bought it Dec 2002 & I didn't get a CEL. Do a search, I read a little while back that cars produced mid-2003 & beyond will throw a CEL, I can't remember though. Hope that helps.

 

'preciate it, thanks.

 

Umm... The downpipe on the Turbonetics kit does away with the cats altogether. There will be no place to hook up conventional cats.

 

oh.....hahha...i was wrong...nevermind.

 

sell the platinum from the cats! u can make some money hahh... well im serious

 

ok,
I just reinstalled my new gutted cats!! I added the O2 sensor bung at the neck of the cat after peeling away some of the alum. heat sheilding. Super-charger next week. Its sounds great. It's a little deeper than stock. But not to much. Now I have to tell you 2 things.

1st: I've always loved the stock sound, to me it's perfect. This actually improves it!! The only other exhaust mods I have are, y-pipe & b-pipe reducer.
2nd: I've been embarassed by my rapsy test-pipes over the last 2 months. I've been embarrassed to get on the gas, because of that damb buzzing.

NO MORE!!!

Great mod to my car!!

Once I pass emmissions I'll be happy to sell my old cats(10k miles) to the next member looking to do this(same price as I payed, of course), then, they too can pass along the favor to the next member!!!

 

didn't the stock cat have a O2 bung anyway???

 

yep,

I needed an extra 1 for the a/f sensor for my supercharger

 

Hellyeah! Sounds good to me! I imagine that some power tools may ease the process a bit, luckily I have a compressor and some trusty power tools waiting for my cats.

 

Why don't you do the same to the other stock cats and make a feeler for if anyone is willing to buy the gutted stock cats for $10 more then what you were about to sell it stock for your drill work.

Just a suggestion.