im thinkin of hollowing out my cats and i was wondering:my car isa completely stock 1989 5.0 lx and will the lack of cats in my exhaust give me any extra horsepower or torque or could i lose some horsepower and torque from doin that?

Well, it depends. How many miles are on the car??? Over time, cats can get clogged up, and if they are, then there will be excessive back pressure, and it will cause power loss. Generally speaking, cats should not effect power though (unless they are clogged). However, that being said, I personally like the sound of a cat-free exhaust better, and your car will run just fine without them. As long as you don't have to pass emissions, then removing them wont hurt anything.

its got about 200k miles on it

The only thing it's gonna hurt is if you have to go thru emissions. Otherwise, get rid of them.

Hollowed out the ones on my 87 didn't hurt a thing and with a good tune and good o2 sensors I was still able to pass the tail sniffer here in AZ. Makes a huge difference in the exhaust tone :D

Mine passed Texas emissions fine without cats.

Lose em' and throw on a O/R H or X.

dont even bother gutting them get a nice off road h or x pipe and youll be all set. keep the stock pipe if you do need to go through emissions

ok im gonna hollow mine out this weekend.im also wondering about taking the smog pump off of my car.where is it located and what do i have to do to remove it.does anyonehave a link to a website that gives instructions or have pictures detailing removing it?

get rid of the cats you will be happier that way

does anyone have any help on getting rid of the smog pump?

Take em OFF!!!

ORIGINAL: joe_5.0

does anyone have any help on getting rid of the smog pump?


I replied to your otherpost yesterday with directions about smog delete....check it out.

DO NOT hollow you cats! Replace them with an off road H or X Pipe. The stock 4 cat pipes are getting rare and expensive. Anyway, if you are hard up for money, scrap buyers are paying up to $100 per cat!!!!! That is $400 dollars in your pocket if you choose to sell them. Hell you can buy a new off road pipe, and still have money to spare.

Shop around different scrap yards pay different prices. I work for a metal recycler, and I see prices on these things every day.

ok ill look into sellin them to pay for some stuff.if i could even get a hundred bucks i would love that

i think with stock muffler and hollow cats it sounds like shyt!! i did mine also had i know what a cat is worth i woulda recycled my stock h pipe and had money for a cheap offroad h or x pipe. cats go for $12-90 cash a peice. i scrap cars, trust me!!! never again will i ever gut a cat!! get a welder and cut it out and weld in a new section and sell the cat to a recycler!! its alota work gutting these cats, not worth it and the stock h pipe is a bish getting back in! out is easy in, not so easy!cutting em out is better, exaust flows funny in a empty cat , but in a straight even tube it flows better and doesnt sound so crappy.my crap sounded like 2 civics with no mufflers driving side by side with gutted and stock mufflers. save up get a cheap off road h pipe and some flow masters and u will love it sound wise!
in my theres emissions in some areas, most, and also they dont do a visual inspection for cats here, and the sniffer cant tell cus the o2 sensor is before cats. post cat o2 sensors usally make a car fail with out mil eliminators, but thats a sn95 issue, nothing for u to worry about. if ur state has visual leave it be. infact, it kills ur low end power in my opinion, takes away back pressure which helps low end, high end might get better. but for day to day drivng gutting cats, u will never benifit unless like said the are already plugged, then u will notice!

ORIGINAL: joe_5.0

ok ill look into sellin them to pay for some stuff.if i could even get a hundred bucks i would love that
find local recyclers. type in 'caytalytic convertor recyclingling "your city, state" ' and u will find some one call around theres a lot of cheap assez. but those can go for 50x4+ sum. there h pipes for 250, or used ones. i got my entire h pipe, flows and tips for $100 off craigs list, used. when i scrap cars i get most of my money off the cats and only first by the weight but i get 90 for certain import cats. i deal with sevral places that buy em and then sell them to some big recycler who runs em down to oregon where they have a melting plant or sumthin,lol

i llive in oregon so maybe i could find a good price

if i remove the portion of the smog system going to the back of the cylinder heads do i need to worry about the cats getting clogged?