Hey, im new to this board.. my names Matt im 18 years old and from northern Ontario.

I drive a 1995 SSEi with 180,000km. For the past month or so ive been noticing a change in exhaust tone at low and mid rpms, my first guess was the cat. Two days ago it started to sound like a giant baby rattle under there so i knew for sure.. Took a drive to Canadian Tire, bought me 2 flared 2.5" X 16" pipes.

Today i took the car into auto class, we put her on the hoist, chopped off the cat, and clamped on the pipes.

All this took me and my buddy Dustin about 45 minutes to complete and the results are impressive.

The car is breathing very noticeably clearer, and has a very nice rumble tone to it now. Its not even raspy. There is also no emmission laws up here until 2010, so were gonna do the same to his Dakota which is experiencing the same problem.

A quick and CHEAP way to avoid spending $300+ on a brand new Cat. Costed me under 20 bucks to repair. (FREE LABOUR)

I would recommend this to anyone with Cat problems, even just for a temporary setup when funds permit the purchase of a new Cat. I dont plan on replacing it anytime soon as im more than satisfied with my results.


~Matt

We don't really condone that type of work around here, especially since it'* illegal as hell down in the States, and some areas of Canada. Down here, if you get turned in, the narc gets $250, so you won't see people brag it up too much.

The environmental thing to do would be to put a performance unit back on the car.

Are you sure it wasnt a heat shield or something like that causing the noise?

Here in this part of northern ontario we dont have regulations on emmissions, and vehicles dont go through an emmission test. I'm glad i don't live in those parts of the US that have emmission regulations. As a student in highschool, i happen not to have a very large budget and don't have 300 dollars to spend on a high flow catalytic converter to reduce green house gases by .0000001%... yet...

I'm sorry that you don't approve of my work. I will do it the ecologically correct way next time.
I didn't expect to get bashed for repairing my car.

To answer the heatshield question :
I'm 100% positive it was the cat because when it took it off, i tilted it downwards and i could hear the blocks inside rattling around. It is cooked, probably wasnt even doing its job in the first place, so no harm done by taking it off.

Just to be on the safe side, check with the rest of the Ontario members....BUT, I think it'* still illegal for you to remove the Cat, regardless of the lack of emissions testing. I don't have testing here, either, yet it'* still illegal to remove the Cat.

If that'* true, and you get caught or turned in, it could be costly.

300$?? I spent $30 USD for my magnaflow on good ol' ebay. And I think every state has emession "control,testing,rules,etc" here in the U.*. Thats why cars come with them.

Thanks for the warning Will, but i contacted my local OPP branch, explained my situation and they said don't worry about it as there is a bylaw which says cars in this jurisdiction don't require an emmission control device.

There is simply too many offroad vehicles here without them and our town is small enough (10,000 in proportion to a huge city like Toronto) to permit this.

I wouldn't do something i can get penalized for. I know an officer who drives a Chrysler Intrepid and he did the same thing because his gas tank was sugared and the sugar (among other things) plugged his cat

I'd suggest getting around $75 (CAN) together and look on ebay for a Magnaflow Carsound 2.5" high flow cat. I just bought mine last night for $55.57 (US) and that included free shipping. I believe the seller added something like $7 (CAN) to ship to Canada after converting to Canadian currency.
Although you might have gained by going from a plugged cat to no cat, it is now too free-flowing. You still need a little bit more back-pressure to get the optimum amount of low end turque.

My car is actually very clean. I clean it twice a week.

I am satisfied with the excellent gas mileage i am getting with my current setup. I talked to my uncle who owns and runs an exhaust shop here in town and he said its one of the best things to do for gas mileage.

Apparently alot of my friends have already done this, just never talk about it before.

Im so glad i caught this in time before i started cooking my valves.

Do any of you guys smoke, or dispose of nonbiodegradeable objects in the trash? if so, maybe you should consider quitting and recycling all your waste as your adding to the same greenhouse effect and pollution as me..

Just my $0.02 though