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Odd thing...cats completely gutted

Old 08-20-2006, 07:41 PM
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Default Odd thing...cats completely gutted

Just wanted to post this to see if anyone ever had this happen or heard of it. I had bought brand new SLP high-flow cats back in March of 2004. The car probably has about 12k miles on it since if that. Well yesterday my boyfriend was installing a clutch for me and panhard rod and I has asked him to hollow out the cats so my car would be louder till I get a new set up. When he went to do so there was absolutely nothing in there..already gutted...no remnants of any ceramic material whatsoever. Has anyone ever had this happen?? we thought you could of at least found remants but there was nothing at all in there.
Old 08-20-2006, 07:51 PM
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There's no way they'd totally disappear. The element is mostly made of metal.

Consider yourself fortunate, I guess. Because it's a pain in the rear to gut them.
Old 08-20-2006, 07:53 PM
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$350 for highflow cats and they gut themselves. I think you need to talk to SLP about it.
Old 08-20-2006, 07:58 PM
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yeah id talk to them, that is REALLY werid, unless w/e installed them gutted them and you forgot that you told them to gut them
Old 08-20-2006, 08:23 PM
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My boyfriend did the install and he didnt gut them. He's a great mechanic and has worked on many LS1's and this is the first time he's ever seen anything like it. I doubt SLP would do anything now let alone any other time. They never seemed to want to back anything up. You'd think there be at least pieces of it in the tailpipes or something..its all so odd. I was on my way over to his house when he called me to tell me the cats were already gutted and when I got there I took a look for myself and sure enough they were completely empty. I wish I would've take a pic of them
'
Old 08-21-2006, 07:01 AM
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In your sig, it says your running a loudmouth. I'll bet anything the material just blew out. As far as them being made out of metal...

The honeycomb is made out of ceramic and it's very brittle. They are extremely brittle so it doesn't take much to break them and once they are a little broken, they vibrate and gradually completely fall apart over time and then the little pieces go flying out on the road at people behind you. I've seen it several times. Twice on my car and I was driving behind my brother's truck when shot tennis ball sized pieces at me.

If you were running a regular muffler, the pieces would have got stuck in there and rattled.
Old 08-21-2006, 07:41 AM
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Thanks for the reply and explanation. About a month ago I heard this rattling while driving that was pretty darn loud coming from under the car and it sounded just like marbles in a tin can. I bet that was the pieces floating around in there . That's kinda funny to have seen the stuff flyin out like you did
Old 08-21-2006, 09:13 AM
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Originally Posted by Flamin' bird
Thanks for the reply and explanation. About a month ago I heard this rattling while driving that was pretty darn loud coming from under the car and it sounded just like marbles in a tin can. I bet that was the pieces floating around in there . That's kinda funny to have seen the stuff flyin out like you did
didn't you notice the exhaust get a lot louder and raspier? i would think you would!
Old 08-21-2006, 09:18 AM
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A messed up engine tune, bad O2 sensor[s], etc, will overheat the brick, and cause it to break up. Some of it may still be in the muffler...
Old 08-21-2006, 09:18 AM
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I'll bet she has a nice stereo system so as to not notice the increased exahust noise.

She has a bullet muffler so it all would have blown out.
Old 08-21-2006, 10:57 AM
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Yes I usually have the radio cranked up and yes one day it started to sound louder but it wasnt anything that was a whole lot noticeble. Like I said I think it's been gradual. Also I have hardly driven the car in the past 6 months. Quite honestly I think my car should be louder . Funny thing that happened when my boyfriend went to drive the car after he installed the clutch this weekend. He was only backing out of the driveway and headed down the street driving rather slowly and calmly. He didnt hit it till he got out on the street about 1/2 mile away and when he got back a neighbor lady with a baby in her arms says "is it necessary to drive like that? Could you please not do that". He just looked at her like she was crazy. "new moms" are annoying.
Old 08-21-2006, 10:58 AM
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Originally Posted by Old Geezer
A messed up engine tune, bad O2 sensor[s], etc, will overheat the brick, and cause it to break up. Some of it may still be in the muffler...
02 sensors are bad in the front...have 02 simms in the back.
Old 08-24-2006, 11:47 PM
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Originally Posted by kenkaru
As far as them being made out of metal...
The cats on my Kooks pipe definitely consisted of a metal comb. The metal comb was coated with a catalyst.....like seen here:

(Not an actual photo of my cat. Mine was larger diameter)



**I have no idea if this is what she had in her SLP catted pipe**

But I will say, it was a pain in the *** to get that stuff out of there. Removing them involved a long-*** drill bit, a Sawz-all with a long, fine toothed blade, and lots of yanking with needle nose pliers.

I can't see any way that the cats in my Kooks pipes could possibly disappear without a trace, all by themselves. But again, I have no idea what she had in there.

Last edited by ShevrolayZ28; 08-24-2006 at 11:54 PM.
Old 08-25-2006, 12:11 AM
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Originally Posted by ShevrolayZ28
**I have no idea if this is what she had in her SLP catted pipe**
and I had no idea there was such a think as metallic cats. Thanks for posting the pic!
Old 08-25-2006, 12:22 AM
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I had no idea there was such a thing as non metallic cats... go figure
Old 08-25-2006, 12:23 AM
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See the other thread about Jet-Hot cats blowing out.
Metallic substrate can't take the same kind of abuse as
ceramics, seems like.
Old 08-25-2006, 01:54 AM
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WTF? I don't understand how the metal ones can blow out. Are they sheet metal coated with ceramic or... I can imagine the coating blowing off, but the whole insert?....

Ceramic is brittle so it crumbls and falls apart like a chocolate chip cookie (yum)

I would think the metal type would just dent and deform but the only way it could blow out would be as one piece which sounds pretty impossible.

Can someone explain?
Old 08-25-2006, 02:06 AM
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mmmmm..... i love chocolate chip cookies, especially when they just get out of the oven

cats can gut themselves and all depends if there's problems like, car running rich and so on...

luckly the muffler is a loudmouth so you don't have to pull that **** out
Old 08-25-2006, 08:01 AM
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Well all I know is my cats had the ceramic stuff in them as they were brand new and now they dont. Again I heard this rattling going on one day while I was driving around and thought the car started to sound really loud. At first I thought there was a big truck behind me or nearby but there wasnt then I guess I got used to it. But yeah it's definetly louder now.
Old 08-25-2006, 11:00 AM
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Originally Posted by jimmyblue
See the other thread about Jet-Hot cats blowing out.
Metallic substrate can't take the same kind of abuse as
ceramics, seems like.
I can't dispute that, my cats were only used for a few thousand miles and this was on an otherwise stock car. They were, however, very much intact.

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