Primary/secondary cats clogged

I was replacing my clutch and noticed a lot of soot inside the cats on the exhaust. Anyone just hollow them out? SPM

 

Yes you can remove the guts...as many others have. The pre-cats have a sort of steel mesh in them....

 

I'm having them hallowed out now. I was going to purchase a after market exhaust but there's a few weeks wait and I would still have a issue with the primary cats. If I'm not happy with this result I'll buy a after market exhaust. Found a company that makes a by pass for the primary cats. There across the ocean and that's also a month wait. SPM

 

If your cats are having problems, I recommend that you get a gas analysis to confirm the car's operating condition. It may be running rich or have other 'issues'.

Punching out an overheated cat will fix the symptom but not the problem.

Cheers,
Vincenzo

 

Absolutely correct Vincenzo !

 

Thanks, I'll have to find a shop that can do that for me.

 

You can also have your cats re-cored. Check out some results in the 348/355 section.

 

Interesting. I punched out the innards of a cat on my old GTI back in the day....when we didnt have emissions (Utah).

I have spare cats on my TR and the originals on a shelf for preservation purposes. You cant restore a failed cat, but you can clean a soot filled cat. Then find the reason for the initial fouling.

 

I got my TR back and she sounds great with the cleaned out cats. Very happy with it. Thanks for all the advice guys. SPM
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I got my TR back and she sounds great without the cleaned out cats. Very happy with it. Thanks for all the advice guys. SPM

 

Great man-cave there Sean! Did you eliminate the cats or did you remove the guts?

I see outrageous prices out there for "cat-delete" pipes and/or "test pipes". Any shop can make up a pair of straight pipes to replace the cats for just a few dollars...just cut a couple of straight segments, slide on flanges, and flair the ends, weld on a couple of O2 sensor bungs - that's it. I'm just blown away at what vendors are asking for such a simple item. I used to run a stock exhaust with both the pre-cats and cats gutted, and the TR sounded a little louder but not excessive. Not sure if there was any more power but it sure sounded better.

 

I just had the guts taken out. Very nice sound and it looks original to the car. I found some secondary deletes for around $300 but the cats were in great shape other than being clogged up. Now I have to find the cause of the clogging.