[Forte5]

Alright so I have been back and forth on this since I have seen under the car. We have a second cat on the mid pipe right after the down pipe that I have been debating if I should gut it. Since I am in cali it has to visually be there for smog. So I was thinking of gutting it so when it comes time to smog it looks like it is there.

So would any of you gut it out? Would there be any performance gain from it? When I get a new exhaust I want to be able to unbolt the midpipe and put the stock one back on when need to be smogged.

 

[Kneegradamus]

Yes yes and yes

 

[Kneegradamus]

Any restriction taken away will help.

 

[Kneegradamus]

I am going to delete it Monday. Just so I can free it up a bit until I do with the custome Downpipe and exhaust

 

[Forte5]

OK cool! I am going to do it today. I have to get under the car anyways for the oil change so I will pull the pipe off and chisel away and report back

 

[Kneegradamus]

Only problem I see is s peices going into the resonator and getting stuck in the baffles. Since you can only get to the cat one side you may have some trouble not doing that

 

[Forte5]

I am going to try and do it upside down by smacking a pipe into it. I have a air compressor and have a piece that I can attach that will give the full 150psi and I can push it all the way in and hopefully that will help get the crap out

 

[Forte5]

Pulled the mid pipe off and measured the inside diameter and it is just shy of 2.5" on my 5. All mandrel bent from factory to. Really nice to see they put the time into this

 

[Forte5]

Got the cat gutted. Was super simple. All the pieces came out easy. Got it back on and seems like it boosts sooner and is more responsive and less input from the throttle now to get it going.

 

[rick021808]

good to know, might have to do this one day, I guess the 2nd o2(CEL) is only affected if you removed/gut the 1st cat.

 

[Forte5]

Yeah it must be. I have no code at all so far. Since we have a 2 piece downpipe the second o2 is on the one that has the flex pipe and is directly after the flange. I will update as I drive more and if it helped mpg to

 

[rick021808]

Sweet I'll have to have a better look next time I'm under the car....

 

[rick021808]

do we have 2.5 all the way back or does it taper down somewhere?

 

[Forte5]

It is super easy. I thought it was going to be a pain. Just takes a deep socket and 4 bolts and 1 exhaust hanger to get the pipe off. Then I took my pry bar and a hammer and tapped it in breaking chunks off. Took about 20min to do. Also keep tilting the pipe up to drop the chunks out every few taps

 

[Forte5]

It is actually like 2.4 all the way back and it's all mandrel bent to. Super nice for stock. So going 3" will help a lot along with getting the suitcase muffler off

 

[honhon]

is it easy to hit out the cat stuff?

 

[Forte5]

Yeah it is. It crumbles easy

 

[rick021808]

I've done one before too.. it is pretty easy.... break it up then shake out and repeat. Took me around 20 min or so on another car I did this too.... did it change exhaust tone at all?

 

[Forte5]

Yeah if you remove the 1st one it will throw it

 

[Kneegradamus]

good to know, might have to do this one day, I guess the 2nd o2(CEL) is only affected if you removed/gut the 1st cat.

Rear cat is not monitored.