cat convertor ca emmisions

77kickinaspen

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called a muffler shop and asked for a est on chopping my cat off and replacing with pipe and they said it illeagal didnt know that...... so what kind of freeflowing cat would work and fit the size of the stock exhaust on my 318 aspen?<BR><BR>prolly sounded stupid to those guys.....
 

slant6billy

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Yep $10,000 fine. Now, if the cat had worn out on it's own- that is no fault of yours. High flow cat with a 3 inch inlet and outlet. Just get some tappered collars. I had a 2inch pipe on my slant6. I had a 2 1/4 pipe that was on my 318, so I used one from summit. don't know if it works and don't care. A cat doesn't work at an idle and really only works while the engine is under load. That requires testing done while on a dyno. New Jersey bought into the California emissions testing but 2 years ago realized a cost savings by just plugging into OBD2 cars. The do use a mirror or camera underevery car to look for a cat converter. If a car guy really wanted to, he could "hollow out a cat" and make it look good- not that I'd do such a thing.
 

slant6billy

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I had a fact sheet on every state and US territory on what they tested or if they tested at all. Some states like Florida have no inspection. Idaho doesn't car how high you lift your truck. States like Maryland and Pennsylvania make the car owner pay for the inspection (while doing so called repairs). I'm no fan of my home state of New Jersey by any means. However, my 79 f body coupe is too old for the OBD2 "Plug N Play" inspection. As long as no obvious smoke, which it does not have and it has a cat or what resembles a cat on it's exhaust with no leaks..... she is gonna pass. They no long fail you for "worn" wiperblades or dim lamps or other bullshit. They used too, though. If you had pulled in and they felt like failing you they could do so. They failed my 97 ram SS/T in 1999 and it was bone stock. The inspectors told me that my wheels were too wide. I said tell it to dodge b/c it was the factory Indy truck/ SS/T option wheel. In 2001 they failed me on emissions. They stated I had to show receipts of 200 bucks or more to pass. I asked if I paid more than 200 and still had bad exhaust, then what? They said it was an automatic pass once the money was put out....... Can one say BULLSHIT. I did one better, my mechanic and I went through the entire engine and exhaust.... good tune up and some magical adjustments....... and pass. always use brass contacts in the cap and rotor. A custom computer and programming (aswell some other goodies)........ now she'll pass each and every emissions test. Just cannot pass over the street without scrapping. Cat converters were always bullshit. CO verses CO2. CO2 does not dissapate or dissolve. It is far worse because of that. CO is a poison, but if piped out of the engine correctly and not used in the garage with the door down, it is not so bad.
 

8d5 AHB

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After 25 years, no testing in WA State- but exhaust shop won't do anything like get rid of emissions. Have to do it yourself or bring it in on a trailer with no plates...
 

bremereric

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Take your cat off and rod it out with a large screw driver or such. With a wide open hole no one will know the differance cause it is still in place.
 

77kickinaspen

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it unbolts on both sides dosnt it? if so ill hollow that hing out tommarow if not its a no go i aint cutting and welding.....welding is not my strong point

only reason i think its part of my studde rproblem is the po told me he took off the original intake and said there was carbon all through it and that it was easyer to put a edel on then clean it
 

slant6billy

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OK, not knowing how it looks or if it still "like stock", it may not be "unboltable". Typically after several years of heat cycles and oxydation, the cat is pretty much petrified in place. If the flanges are close like my Honda, you might be able to get it, but that is highly unlikely. Easiest is a hacksaw or cutoff wheel. My Honda was a 2001 and it had 3 bolt flanges on either end. I still spent a day getting it off using a cut off wheel on the 6 studs. Now my friend races his street car on off road courses. He has a ball/ socket 2 bolt flange on either end of his cats. the ball end is welded on the leaving end and the socket end (female end) is on the front side of the cat. He uses stainless hardware with antiseize compound for easy on/ off removal. so the pipe from the engine has a welded on ball end. It mates to the front of the cat (socket end). The rear of the cat has a ball end mated to the socket end on the "cat back" side of the exhaust. When he races his cats come off and get replaced with a 2.5 inch pipe of equal length to the cat with a ball on one end and socket on the fron of the pipe. So that is 3 ball ends per side and 3 socket ends per side (if you have dual exhaust like him). Here is a summitracing one by JBA (it is a little pricey, but it is good stainless):http://www.summitracing.com/parts/jba-1650st/overview/
There are cheaper ones out there. I got some for my car for 10 bucks each from a local auto shop. you might be able to use u bolts with some muffler putty, but that stuff will oxydize quickly
 

Mroldart2u

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If they aren't sniffing, they are going by visual. Just make sure it LOOKS like a cat irregardless of what it is or how its plumbed in. (ball/socket-flanged/welded) If I were in that situation, i'd remove it measure a length of the same size pipe then encase it with what looks like an earlier cat (clam-shell flanged sides and do rosette welds in the "case" along the edges and around the ends where the pipe enters and exits) But not knowing your metal fab skills/equip avail you may not be able to do this.
 

oldskoolracer

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Alot of this here is false, you live in california, we have the strongest emissions laws. NO you CAN NOT remove a cat unless it has been proven by a qualified shop that it is bad. You CAN NOT use a universal high-flow cat, it has to be CA approved. No exhaust or repair shop can legally remove your cat or any other emission device off of your vehicle. Visual inspections are very strict and they will inspect very closely if it looks like the cat or any other devices have been tampered with.

You CAN pull it, hollow it out, or put a test pipe in, however it is ILLEGAL, so do it at your own risk.... There is little to no performance gain on a stock/mild engine from a good cat to no cat at all. a bad cat has obvious issues that you cant use to compare anything.

Good luck on your decisions, Ca does suck for the stipulations they have on emission equipment.
 

oldskoolracer

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it is illegal, but there is a huge number of people who do remove/ hollow out thier cats. I have even seen cars pass smogg under these conditions lol. No cat is better than a bad one I suppose, then like the golf that I own, had a hollow cat under it and wouldnt even get close to passing lol.
 

slant6billy

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low end power does suffer - just a little without the backpressure of a cat on a stock-ish motor. gas mpg seems to do better with an expanded or hollowed cat..... not that I tried this or anything. I hear moving the cat further towards the rear of the car might gain some power as well increasing the inlet pipe a full inch
 

My imp

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Passed with my LeBaron convertible every year w/o a cat. I used a pneumatic needle scaler to remove cat con guts. Run 3 cans of dry gas in a no more than 1/2 full fuel tank & viola instant pass. A fully hollowed out converter sounds just that,"hollow". Should they tap that thing, it'll sound like an empty tin can.
 

tim berry

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the only place allmost as bad as california has to be ma. when i put my car back on the road the first trip was to the muffler shop to have a new exhaust put on .after they saw the cats missing they made a call to the state d.o.t. to see if it was ok to put a new system on without cats and they were given the ok it passes ok everytime but because of the age of the car there is no emisisions test good luck just my 2 cents
 

Leizurtime

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Just wondering about the pre-cat. Has anyone had any luck passing CA emissions with their pre-cats pulled off? My 77 volare has a pre-cat on the driver bank and a main cat down the line. I'm planning on replacing the main cat with a CARB compliant aftermarket. I think the exhaust shop will do this seeing as I have holes all through the exhaust system. Only problem is, I can't find a pre-cat to replace the one I have. Can you remove it and pass CA smog with the main cat only?
 
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