hehehe.... I see how it is, well, since nobody is gonna find out, and nobody even knows what my car looks like... how bout I cut the old cat out, and go and weld a few "sleeve" pieces onto it, so that I can run straight pipes untill I need a new sticker... and then I just attach the cat for the checkup? I know this is cheating, but I mean, isn't that what im doing anyway?..

*Disclaimer... any modifications mentioned here are for off-road use only...*

Moving on... alright so I have some time stacked up here to work on the exhaust for my car. How should I go about putting straight pipes instead of the cat? The front is welded and the back has a flange. I can cut the front connection to the cat but then what? How do I attach a pipe to the end of the headers witout welding? How should I go about attaching the other end of the pipe to the flange? Also, what would be the best place to buy an appropriate piece of pipe for cheap? Finally, I noticed that JB-weld has a max operating temp of 600 f... I coulnd't imagine the exhuast getting hotter than that, so I suppose I could use jbweld to attach things, but... would the cat get hotter than 600? I want to be able to reatach the cat when the time comes, and it seems that I would have to at least weld on a type of sleeve that would attach to the end of the headers, but I have no real welding experience, nor do I have access to a welder...

Badinfo,

In order for a cat to work properly it has to be hot...real hot. Somewhere between 800 and 900 degrees. Jb weld will work on a muffler but the cat itself gets to hot!

__________________
Brandon



2008 S550
1957 Dodge D100
1967 VW Microbus 21 Window
2001 Suburban
2004 Beach cruiser bicycle
-----------------GO DUKE!-----------------

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here." Patrick Henry 1776

thanks... thats what I thought, so any ideas on how im gonna rig this thing up? My car is louder than my mom's land rover thesedays....

hey badinfo,

This may sound stupid, but how about fixing your vehicle correctly?

You and others have mentioned how you dislike the emissions testing, but it is exactly folks LIKE YOU who have screwed with the emissions controls of vehicles, making them pollute more that have helped make the emissions testing happen!

As with anything else, your passing emissions or not depends on the inspection station. I am amazed at how I failed an inspection once because I had a small taillight crack, yet I see junkers with no bumpers and red tape for taillights tooling along with fresh inspection stickers on the cracked windshield...

I suspect that with the new emission laws, some of the less scrupulous places won't be able to continue the practice. Newer, more expensive equipment is necessary to be in conformance with the new inspection station requirements.

At least the Beetle fell under the 25-year old clause, so it doesn't require an emissions test to pass...thank God...those dual carbs throw the sniffer off the scale!!!

__________________
2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

well hey, if you wanna lay down the 900 bucks for a new mercedes cat, be my guest... and plus, we are living in a republican world, so if big business can pollute the crap out of our environment, why shouldn't I? So no ideas here? Im thinking I might weld flanges onto the front of the cat and to the pipes, so I can then bolt up both items similar to how the muffler is connected... only problem is I don't know where to get said flanges. Would this be an item that would have a mercedes part number? (I need to use identical flanges to those which mercedes employs, otherwise I will have to do even more cutting and welding) As always, any help is greatly appreciated!