gutting pre cats help!

[alantala15]

ok im just now getting into my 2000 cougar which i just got...and i want a little more noise from it...so i want to gutt the pre cats...i need help thought....im good with tools and i know i can do it but im not sure where everything is and what everything is....pictures would help...i have alll the tools...i just dont know what to do really...i tried looking at the how tos but there werent any pictures so im not exactly sure what to do...help would be greatly apprecitated.thansk

[MidOH3LCougar]

The pre-cats are built right into the exhaust manifolds, so you have to remove them to gut them.

[alantala15]

ok thats telling me something....so what do i do to the cat?

[mmc757]

Wrong, they can be done installed.
Disconnect the precats from the Y-pipe, pop off a couple of the rubber mounting bands from the exhaust, and just swing the whole exhaust out of the way.
Remove the O2 sensors
Rear one is easy
Front one requires a small hole to be drilled so you can access the cat material to smash it up

Gutted precats yesterday...lessons learned

In this pic, the fat arrow points to the plug I installed in the front precat, the skinny arrow points to the rear precat.
The Y pipe is the thing that connects the two of them to the rest of the exhaust.

[MidOH3LCougar]

Sorry, wasnt aware you could gut them installed.
Im assuming you just shove something up inside them to smash the material and let it fall out ?

Guess i need to read the how to cause if thats the case i wish i would have done mine a couple months ago when it was all apart lol.

[B3NN3TT]

The rear bank is simple to do while still installed, but I'd not recommend leaving the front bank in. You REALLY need to be able to turn it over and manipulate it to safely remove ALL of the contents. You REALLY don't want to have anything left in there...

[mmc757]

The rear bank is simple to do while still installed, but I'd not recommend leaving the front bank in.

Seems like leaving them installed is kinda the biggest reason to gut in the first place. If your going to remove, then you might as well do headers. Obviously money is a factor, but dont underestimate the difficulty of pulling these things out. If your lucky, it will go fine, with no troubles. If not, there is a high potential for breaking very hard to reach studs/bolts.

You REALLY need to be able to turn it over and manipulate it to safely remove ALL of the contents.

Disagree. A good shop vac (with a hepa filter preferably, but at least a paper filter), good flashlight, and being very meticulous is the first step. Starting the car for a minute or so before reconnecting the exhaust is the next step.

You REALLY don't want to have anything left in there...

Agree

I do believe its worth taking a little extra time to at least test the bolts on the manifold to see if they will come out easily. If it takes you 30 minutes to pull it out, then its worth doing. But if you find yourself worrying about breaking a stud, then stop and just do it in place. They are very small studs...10 mm maybe even 8? so it doesnt take much.

[alantala15]

ok so far your giving me the most help..thanks...can you put an arrow as to where i disconnect the y pipe from?...and how do i smash up the material inside? whats inside of the cat anyways??

[mmc757]

The skinny arrow points at one of the flanges you disconnect. The second one is the flange below the fat arrow.
Use anything small but strong to smash up the cat material. I used a 1/4" steel rod with a bend at the end because I had it available. The how-to describes the smashing up process pretty well IIRC.
I taped my running shop-vac to the open flange while I was doing this on the front one so everything just got sucked out as I went.
The hardest part of the smashing up process is the first puncture. Once your through the surface of the cat material, its pretty easy to demolish but the start can be a little tough.
Spinning your tool in an electric drill is very helpful, but be careful because it will jam up and try to spin you instead. Dont let it break your fingers or anything.

The guts consist of the cat material itself (some kind of ceramic maybe?), two pieces of braided yarn, and some wire screen IIRC.

[alantala15]

ah ok....so this is what gutting is...just take the stuff out the cat...so i smash it all up throught the hole i make in one of the pre cats and clean it out through the flanges i disconnect?