Today, I was heading to a car meet, turned Vdc off on the way and had a little fun .. I pulled over for a moment to take a call after, i put my car in drive and it turned off right away ... I tried starting it over and over, It would crank and turn on but die quickly like there was no gas... Temperatures were fine .. Oil was just changed and full tank of gas .. Popped the hood everything seemed fine .. Then checked under the car and seen " vapor/smoke" coming from my driver side cat .. When I got a closer look there where parts of it that were completely red and possibly melting soon and it looked like my car was going to catch on fire .

I assume the cats are clogged ? My g35 coupe is Completely stock, no dash indicators or anything.

I Sat for a few mins then car turned on fine and I went about my day . I need to fix this before something happens worse than that ...I think it's running a few degrees hotter, I can tell there is some power loss because when I punch it , it doesn't go like it a did a few days ago .. Is it really a clogged cat or is it something else ?

Suggestions please ?!!!



It was a lot more red , this was in the moment though .

 

Definitely clogged cats. Wow.

 

okay so I have a few questions then ... The other one still looks in tact .. Will it be okay to just change one or do you think they're both going to go pretty soon?

I was looking online for cats and they have magnaflow universal but I'm pretty sure Mine are angled and won't fit ?

What are good high flow cats for the buck and anything over 500 for both I will be probably putting a entire new exhaust in .. It only makes sense .

Also will gutting the cat be fine for now ? Someone said that might be an option .

 

I would change both and universals will not work. Gutting is not a bad idea. HFC go kinetix, stillen, berk, or hks and they are not cheap.

 

So I went with gutting it since it was the only thing I could do atm and it was free .. It was impossible to " simply take a screw driver and poke it out " if anyone plans of gutting I do not recommend using a hammer , crowbar, or screw driver to get the insides out although those are all things I used.... along with a heavy duty hammer drill. It is not a simple process and will take hrs .. Took me 5hrs to get it out. 2 hrs in I started drilling . Here are some progress pictures



Tried crowbar, pipes , screw drivers hammers and that's all that was done especially hard if you don't have a lift .. I used ramps





Started drilling with the Bausch hammer drill





Lots of dust .. Always be safe .. Some eye wear would of helped save a few minutes too haha














I was drilling and it pushed it back into the cart .. So be careful of this .. I eventually got it back to wear I was able to pinch so that I can drill it again





Final small block was a pain to drill and get out





Gutted and clear 😍

 

I do have a question though . Metal mesh part of my exhaust was either already tearing or it tore and when I was trying To move It clear of the cats .. Is there a way to patch this I think I hear a hiss from it or is that just how a gutted cat will sound ? It almost sounds like a turbo hiss at high rpm only though.

 

you drilled and hammered through 200$ worth of precious metals fyi.
you can swap out 100$ test pipes or resonated test pipes for under 150.
you could have made money on this.

never ever gut your cats. there is always a better option.
in certain situations i can see it being the only option, but if you are able to wait. then take the road that makes you money and gives you a little more *** in the mid range.

 

Just replace with hi-flow cats. Also, your right side is glowing also and is probably clogged.

It looks like you only removed about half of the cat material. There's more in front of the O2 sensor after the bend. The system basically goes <header - O2 #1>|<cat material - O2 #2 - cat material>|<y-pipe> Hope you removed the O2 sensor while you were drilling and hammering away to avoid damage.

Here's a pic of the whole thing to give you an idea of how much material may still be in there:

 

wow. never seen cats so red.

As someone already mentioned that was precious metals you just hacked away. Normally scrap yards will give you couple hundred bucks for the cars (depending on what car they are from).
But what is done is done. I doubt you will be too raspy now, but it sure will stink pretty bad. Also your sensors might throw codes now.

 

 

^^^^ This was me trying to get my car inspected at the age of 16 in 1970.

I had a Fiat 850 spider. I couldn't afford the Monza Exhaust for it and I wanted noise NOW! So I whipped out my trusty electric drill and punched about a dozen holes in the muffler, sounded cool. Three months later, I had to get my annual inspection done....

 

nice paint

 

Haha thanks paint is very much in tact gonna get it buffed soon.. So I'm going to order so a hfc probably kinetix. Now I do have a questions:

there is still some type of honeycomb in a hfc So it's will pass inspection still or do I need the non fouler ? I have a garage friend but still I'd like to know because I don't want my dash throwing any lights .

Will it smell And be super loud and raspy with a hfc? Because I'd rather have stock if it's going to be loud and annoying.

Test pipe and hfc pretty much the same ? If not can you explain the difference

 

Some HFCs are carb legal. See which spec they are up to and see if it is legal in the state.

 

There is a chance you will get rasp, but if you are using the OEM exhaust than it will barely be noticiable. The exhaust note will be a little louder.

Test pipe is another name for a straight pipe and is simply an empty pipe, not the same as a HFC which will have the honeycomb inside.