Does anyone know where the precat material in the header is located? Is it around at the collector or in each individual header tube? I have purchased some high flow cats and will have the exhaust off I was thinking of just gutting the factory header so there is no precat. If its in the end(collector area) I may be able to remove the catalytic material easily.
The only person I know who did that job with great results is Robin "mpcar". He posted a great thread about it.
I saw a pic of the cat material. Depending on how deep the cat material is I'm thinking maybe drill a large hole while vaccuming then stuff a rag in the hole. Drill and break out the rest of the material and then shopvac it and pull the rag out of the collector. Start the car with headers only to blow out any other material left behind. If I feel like there is too much material left inside the header I will take it off. I hope I can catch most of it though.
This link might help you? see post #22 http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=291086&highlight=precat&page=2
Personally, I think its much better to leave the factory headers alone and buy the Fabspeed set. Selling the car is easier with OEM parts, and not every buyer would be keen on headers that were gutted.
Did you finish it yet? Did you end up taking the headers off the car? No offense, but I could care less what the next guy to own this car wants. I've had it for 3 years and its went from a 100k+ car to around a 60k car in that time... I'll probably keep it for a while. Worrying about the money I will lose on this car went away a long time ago. I was looking into headers and even won a set on ebay for a good price, but the seller never sold them to me. Since then I have seen other threads/pics of the Factory headers without the heat shield and they have the same design so why bother.
With all the time you would spend removing the headers and gutting them out, it makes sense just to get something better quality. The Fabspeed headers may be similar in design, but thick walled stainless is far better than the low grade that Ferrari used. Nice to see that not everyone cares about the next buyer.
Yeah.. Its a double edge sword. The uprated cats are pricey, and may? not sure do the same thing. Even if not, its still good chunk of change. Though, you can take your old ones hack the ends off and sell them on ebay as scrap and get a heck of a lot more money from them than regular ones. Either way I think new ones or deleting all together if you can, i would. We dont have emissions so off they go if it were up to me haha
Dave, How deep in the tail end of the header is the Cat-material? Is it like 3 inches in and is it in a curve so you can't get something straight in there? My high flow cats are coming in Friday so I'm probably going to remove my headers and get this done before I get them in. If I can't find anything to get in their and break them up then I will probably do what mrpcar and cut them open remove the material and then re weld them.
I think this is the best option. I also like the jet coating. The cat material is approx 6-7" in and in plain view. You can get to it, but cutting and rewelding followed by jet coating would be better.
I know this is a bit off topic.. but have any of you Heat Wrapped your headers, cats ect? I know from other apps i have used it on it makes way better flow and keeps the heat isolated also it keeps pesky fluids from starting fire from direct hot metal contact. Sorry just curious.
Heat wrap would be a good option for very tight areas, often used by formula 1, Indy race car headers. The disadvantage is that it traps moisture and would cause more rusting and oxidation. I went with the jet hot coated option as there are plenty of room in the 360 engine bay and somewhat of an air flow. However I did add a home made heat shield around the alternator area to reflect the heat.
The pre-cat is a round cylinder, if you use a cut off wheel to make a 200 degree circular cut along the factory weld area where the pre-cat is contained you can easily get it out once the opening is made.
David, So far I don't have a CEL with using the 02 sensor extender with my stock CATs, all the people who reported with problems are either running high flow CATs, or no CATs.
