How do I straight pipe the exhaust? I looked at the cat and it's got these triangular shaped flanges on it that bolt up to the exhaust pipes and I can't figure out how to make another pipe fit on that set-up.

Any advice?

Dm of mD

well dont remove the cat then from the cat back just weld on whatever size pipe you want(youll have to get it bent) then hang it back by where the muff would go

wicked

Oh....okay.

Great, now I need to hire a welder too.
Bah. I'll just take the stock one off and hollow it out.

Dm of mD

well its like this. Some muffler shops will not do it due to it being illigal. Also its very simple to do. Bore out the cat. and buy pipering... if you dont feel like bending a lot and feel like welding more than you can buy pre bent ones. or you can take it to a muffler shop and hope they will do it... basicly they take off everything cutting it. Then weld new cletes on them to suppoer and go from there. one of the simplest things I think to do that makes a big difference in a car. just dont try it yourself if you cant weld.

Things like gasses from the welder and pinholes can cause back fire or fire around the gas tank will make you and your car go BOOM its happened around here so dont be stupid. Good luck. bye the way strait pips on a 2nd gen sounds GREAT I had them intill I needed to get it inspected.

if your running stock pipe you have absolutely no need to straight pipe it, if its a daily driver you have no need to straight pipe it

if you buy prebent pipe for our cars(only one that makes it is walker for replacement) it comes with a flange the right size but its just replacement, if your going larger your gonna have to get it bent anyways and theyll usually include installation in the price to bend the pipe, theyll just weld it right onto the back, if its a bad shop theyll offer to remove the cat too, but since youll still have stock headers and intermediate pipe your still not gonna have a high enough flow to need to run without a cat


wicked

oh sorry for the double post but their is no edit....

oh and if you think its expensive to hire a welder/get a high flow cat/etc, wait till your burning more gas cause your o2 sensors getting a bad reading and your running rich, or your running lean and your engine takes a crap on you, or that wonderful cop pulls you over and hands you a nice violation(2500$ around here)

wicked

Well, I tried to get the stock bolts off with an impact wrench today and the bastards wouldn't budge. It looks like I'm going to have to pay someone to take off the old CAT anyway. This sucks.
Lately there doesn't seem to be a damn thing that I can do right with this car.
I couldn't competently replace the ignition wires and sparkplugs and that cost me 40 dollars in parts and 311.28 at a shop to get the car diagnosed and running again.
I've done it at least 15 times but the last time I just couldn't get it right.
Now this...
It's like the damn car hates me or something.

*sigh*

Dm of mD

well drive it for a bit save up some money then get the exhaust bent from the headers back

wicked

ok, first off : a straight pipe will not mess up your o2 sensor and cause bad mileage. the only way it will trip an o2 sensor is if your car has an after-cat o2. in which case, you can by a little resistor off from ebay for 30 dollars or less to trick the computer into thinking the cat is there. now that is cleared up, so... the straight pipe... it can be done on a daily driver, and I see reason for it- less things to go wrong later. a clogged converter can play with you, making you check a whole bunch of other things that could be wrong, so why mess with it? all you do is cut out the section with the converter, and weld in a piece of straight pipe- hence,... straight piping a car... it is really quite simple and some shops will do it for a small fee, just pay for the job in cash and make sure they know that ahead of time. the only thing, with eliminating the cat, the exhaust will have less back pressure, and most likely you'll have to do an idle relearn

I hollowed out my cat a while back trying to find a problem. Just took it off, and knocked all the stuff out. The car sounds awesome, even with stock pipes. Im just a bit worried about this upcoming inspection, but i'll replace the cat if need be, just swap back afterwards.


http://www.cardomain.com/id/nocho
there are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who dont.

Thank you. How hard was it to get the flange bolts off that hold it in place on the exhaust? I couldn't get mine off and It pissed me off.

Dm of mD

I'm going to second the motion about not having any reason to do this. With that said...why the heck do you even need to find any triangular flanges to match up? Take a sawzall to the flange, chop it off, and buy yourself about 2 feet of pipe, and then just sleeve up the pipes. Why waste your money on flanges and crap? This is cheaper and faster. That's what I did when my..well...when my cat fell off. I was too poor to buy a new cat and have it done, so I just did what I described above.


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1997 Cavalier Z24
1992 Cavalier Z24 - *RIP*
"I consistently feel like something's missing out of the new cavvy. I'm pretty sure its 2 cylinders."

Okay, what size pipe do I buy?
I know how to use the clamps but does anywhere rent a sawzall?

Dm of mD

I don't know...a 2.0 has..what...a 2" pipe? If that's the case go to a hardware store (I went to ACE Hardware) and rent a sawzall. Just make sure you pick up some 2" (or whatever diameter) INNER DIAMETER pipes. Then clamp it up and (if you're poor like me) use a little bit of that muffler putty stuff to seal it off if you get leaks.


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1997 Cavalier Z24
1992 Cavalier Z24 - *RIP*
"I consistently feel like something's missing out of the new cavvy. I'm pretty sure its 2 cylinders."

Kewl, Thanks man!! I'll try it after I get a replacement CAT just in case I mess it up. That way I can get it to the muffler shop and have them fix my disaster hehe. It will be one loud mutha till I get it there though HAHAHAHAH!!!!

Dm of mD

Yeah, you think that's bad, try having nothing but an OEM muffler that's started rusting out and no Cat on a 3.1. Now THAT was a "loud mutha." The 3.1 sounded like a Z28 at idle.


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1997 Cavalier Z24
1992 Cavalier Z24 - *RIP*
"I consistently feel like something's missing out of the new cavvy. I'm pretty sure its 2 cylinders."

Hehehehe...

Thank you for the laugh.

Dm of mD


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