Empty Cat?
a cat is basically a piece of pipe with the ceramic brick inside and thats it. so i am going to take that as maybe "flushed out" is one persons way of saying "gutted" ? i may be wrong but now im kind of curious to see if it is something different, so we will see when others chime in. I know that its not gutted, im trying to figure out who much is left in the cat, when i tap on it with a wrench it sounds only a little bit more dense than the rest of the exhaust piping. Im trying to decide if gutting it is going to be worth anything.
i can tell you now its not worth it, maybe 5hp. well at least to me its not worth 5hp for all that work.
yup. i gutted mine and it got louder not like a stock honda and then v8 open headers but a little bit. lucky for me no codes were thrown 
i look back and now im saying "why did i even waste my time doing that?" since i basically got nothing out of it but if the brick was still in there id be wanting to get it out of there lol
i look back and now im saying "why did i even waste my time doing that?" since i basically got nothing out of it but if the brick was still in there id be wanting to get it out of there lol That's pretty subjective. Louder I'll agree with but most of the exhausts that I've heard that I thought "sounded" best had cats in place. The quality of the tone of the exhaust seems to improve when you leave cats in your system. Then again, the sound of one exhaust setup is music to one guy and garbage to the next so it's all personal preference.
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That's pretty subjective. Louder I'll agree with but most of the exhausts that I've heard that I thought "sounded" best had cats in place. The quality of the tone of the exhaust seems to improve when you leave cats in your system. Then again, the sound of one exhaust setup is music to one guy and garbage to the next so it's all personal preference.
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seriously-remove o2 sensors, unbolt, take a long screwdriver/rod with a hammer and just break up the break inside. keep breaking till you can see light and no more brick inside. you will no when you get it all because the outermost layer is a sheet of what looks like fiberglass mat. then take an air compressor and blow out the dust and fibers then reinstall.
I've gone from a gutted cat, to completely removing a cat on my old LT1. There will be an increase in rasp, and overall loudness if you go from gutted to straight pipe. You might also get an occassional backfire.