Removing Extra Catalytic Convertors?

[godzilla]

Hey all, after making a booking at the begining of the week with an exhaust shop to have the second cat removed from our Leggie, they ring and tell me, after my wife is on her way there this morning, that they have decided they do not want to do the job! They are saying that they are affraid of the EPA & RTA remifications. Now after doing a fair bit of reading on here before i made my decision to do it, i established that because it already had a cat before the O2 sensor, and being a pre 2000 model car, that the second cat just before the rear muffler can go.
Now im in NSW but the car is rego'd in QLD. Does anyone have first hand experience and knowledge on the legality of removing one or multiple cats?
Thanks, Trev

 

[godzilla]

Well i found someone to do it and they only charged me $40. This guy from another exhaust shop said that he couldn't believe where (who ever it was) they installed the second cat, right under the fuel tank
Anywho, i still have one cat so hopefully that keeps the authoritor happy.
Also when he was rooting around under the car he noticed a large hole in the back of my cannon where it joins the rest of the exhaust, so after hearing that i asked him to quote me a whole new system in 3" including a brand new highflow cat and a nice new shinny cannon. Time to stimulate the economy

 

[Mortz]

Yeah I also removed my extra cat as you know Trev and when I did he refused to give me a reciept in case the job was illegal. I'm sure we are fine to remove our 2nd cat with no legal ramifications but I'm guessing the exhaust shops are cautious decatting any car due to the massive fines involved.

 

[godzilla]

I ended up going to Bill's, he was great. I'll let you know what he quotes me for the system. Now its time to choose a new muffler.

 

[YTRY50]

so our cars have 2 catalytic converters or just one ? do you get much more power with them removed?

 

[CANDEE]

so our cars have 2 catalytic converters or just one ? do you get much more power with them removed?

Ours only have one from factory(I think some of the aussies need to have two for compliance for some reason)... Its between the center section and the downpipes... With a std exhaust you can make some decent gains without one.

Also over here we can get a WOF without a CAT(have just got one today with my new exhaust) but if we have to get a cert for the exhaust(noise reasons etc), then we have to have one if our car was manufactured after 1996(or 1998 cant remember which)..

 

[YTRY50]

Hi Jeremy thanks for replying. Is it ok to remove it and change it with straight pipe? Also with an exhaust tip on the end with no cat would it be too loud do you reckon? Also do you really think you can feel more power with it gone and do you get more KM per tank? Cheers

 

[bradc]

You normally get a small bit of extra power, maybe 3-5kw without the cat. You will get a tiny bit better fuel economy, barely noticable.

 

[CANDEE]

Is it ok to remove it and change it with straight pipe? Also with an exhaust tip on the end with no cat would it be too loud do you reckon?

A decat is usually just a straight piece of pipe anyhow.

The loudness really depends on the muffler etc, I have mine on a 3" exhaust, with a triple flow muffler and its 91dB, so is fine noise wise, though with the same exhaust and a straight through muffler, I reckon it would be well over the 95dB limit.. Its a try and see how you go situation.

Hope this helps.

 

[YTRY50]

Haha sounds good im going to decat it how many mufflers do we have on standard exhausts? and also what size is our standard exhaust piping?

 

[CANDEE]

Haha sounds good im going to decat it how many mufflers do we have on standard exhausts? and also what size is our standard exhaust piping?

We only have one muffler(at the back) and two resonators on the center pipe. Std piping is about 2 1/4 - 2 1/2".

 

[YTRY50]

Thanks for your help Jeremy

 

[CANDEE]

Thanks for your help Jeremy

No worries matey.