Looking for high flow replacement cat.

veesix · Sep 30th, 2006, 10:07 AM

Hello,

I drive a 1988 3.0L KC, and at about mid summer this year, the air tube on the catalytic converter rusted off at the flange. Of course, I dragged the tube along the road for a week before "fixing" it with some wire.

The hole in the cat. is about the size of a nickle, and the sound, is really starting to harsh my mellow.

JEGS High Performance - Car, Truck, Street, and Drag Racing Performance Parts has some high flow cats listed for a good price, but they don't look larger than the OEM piece. Does anyone know what cat. will out flow the OEM part?

I also considered dropping by the muffler shop and asking if they would tack weld a washer over the airtube inlet ( I'd then call it fixed).

Thanks,

veesix

dvdswanson · Oct 2nd, 2006, 06:11 PM

well if the cat started to rust then the rest of the exhaust isnt far behind. look into just replacing the whole thing if money allows. possibly even some headers, let the puppy breathe.

veesix · Oct 2nd, 2006, 07:28 PM

I had a Flomaster muffler installed last January. The sound is good.

Headers would be great (probably not too expensive), I will be looking into that.

I checked the forum projects for ideas, and Project Pathfinder still carries the same stock cat., as far as I can tell (no mention was made of an upgrade). And Project Evil Twin is the same deal.

JEGS has a number of catalytic converters, ranging in price from $50 to $100. I could install two at that price?

veesix

**88pathoffroad** · Oct 2nd, 2006, 10:54 PM

Any high-flow cat will flow better than a stock one. Do you have to have the AIV tube hooked up for emissions or can you get away with just having a new one welded on? My AIV system has been deleted for quite some time now with no problems.

veesix · Oct 4th, 2006, 04:44 PM

The State of Florida does not have emissions testing.

But, a mechanic will probably not be willing to weld in a "test pipe".

Right now, the AIV tube is wired up, and out of the way. It will need to be replaced (it's thrashed) at some time if the truck moves to a State with e. testing.

Jegs does list similar converters with, or with out, the AIV tube attachment.

veesix · Oct 13th, 2006, 09:32 AM

I was in the parts store the other day and I spoke to the "Parts Guy" about the hole in my cat.

He got an idea and zipped down an isle, and picked out a small brass fitting. It was about the perfect size, but it was threaded, and the whole in the cat is not.

Then I mentioned something about epoxy and he ran over to another isle and pulled a package of JB Weld off the shelf. The package does not list much info about high temp. applications, but the guy said it was the perfect epoxy.

OK, so far so good. The epoxy held tight to the dirty and rusty cat., and after a couple of days, the fix is still in place.

One suggestion I would make is that the epoxy would be easier to work with if it was thickened with some micro ballons (or, what ever it is people thicken epoxy with).