Probably installing a Cattman SS y-pipe today. My car is a '95 with a little under 127k miles. Should I expect snapped bolts getting the old one out?

 

Yes

Especially since you are in PA, snow + salt= no beuno for under car parts. Try to take off the cat bolts first, if no go take it to a muffler shop and have them replace them, everything else about the install is pretty much cake.

 

yeh those bolts get pretty rusty under there. i would try and pretreat them before attempting to remove.

 

Yeah my car is the same year, about the same miles as yours. Pretty much all the bolts broke or had to be cut to get the old Y-pipe off. Do yourself a favor and wear some good safety glasses cuz I was getting rust out of my eyes for days lol

 

Pre-treat and then use air tools. My 92 was a piece of cake.

 

Yep, the cat bolts will give you trouble.

 

Where can you find replacement bolts? Is it Dealer only or a certain home depot/lowe's type?

I also received my Cattman SS pipe today also. Im automatic but hopfully ill feel some kind off difference, especially for $414.

 

I just used regular bolts and nuts and washers from the local home depot/lowe's type.

 

Replace full exhaust at the same time. Like the cat and cat back.

 

Use air tools or 3-4 foot breaker bar pipe and anti-rust spray.

Having a shop replace the nuts and bolts might be a good idea though especially if you don't have air tools.

 

I don't mean to shift the discussion, but it looks like the question was more than answered. Rather than starting a new thread, I'd like to pose a question about Y pipes. My car is a 1999 SE with CA emissions, which I believe has a different front exhaust manifold to accomodate an additional sensor. From what I understand, the pre-cat bolts staight to the front manifold and does not use a standard 3 bolt exhaust flange. I am in the process of fabricating my own ss Y pipe and saw referenced in another thread that you can replace the CA emissions manifold with a Fed emissions manifold. Has anyone done this conversion or have any thoughts on it. I believe the Fed emissions front cat is probably a better flowing and more standard manifold than the CA.

 

I'm sure that would work just fine.

 

My only concern is the CA emissions sensors. I don't know the configuration for sensors on the Fed manifold. I may just go to the import junk yard nearby and pick one up and see if it works. Worst thing is I waste a manifold gasket.

 

I think the bolts to the header would give you more problems. I looked at them and they are very stubby and small. I don't recall the bolts to the cat tho. But it should be easier since you can access it a more easier.

 

Did you ever call that shop i told you about? What came of this.

 

If you break off the cat bolts you can put in new bolts with washers and nuts after drilling out the old studs that you broke off.

 

First off, thanks a TON for the quick replies. I'm really not entirely sure why I didn't listen. I probably should have, but for some reason I just had to give it a shot myself.

Uninstallation was actually easy -- I absolutely doused every single one in Liquid Wrench, waited, sprayed them with brake cleaner, doused them in more Liquid Wrench, and NONE of the studs broke. One hard part was figuring out how to maneuver a socket with a U-joint on the end of an extension to get it onto a couple of the rear header nuts. Manual dexterity is a BIG plus here, but all told it isn't a big deal. Getting the nuts off the cat studs was a bigger problem. For some reason my 12mm socket didn't fit, but when I tried the 13mm the nuts just rounded off almost completely. For any of you who do this kind of thing, definitely get one of those kits with the special sockets that bite into and remove rounded-off nut/bolt heads. Those made the job pretty easy.

I will say this: Cattman's reputation for fitment is VERY well deserved. Given how much variation there can be in the stock stuff, especially in the position of the cat inlet, I was amazed at how easily everything fit. Once I raised the thing into position, all six header studs were easily accessible and the nuts went on without a problem. A friend of mine came over, we took the rounded cat stud nuts to Home Depot to find replacements, and I thought I was home free.

Problem is, those nuts don't seem to use a standard thread size and pitch -- or if they do, Home Depot in King of Prussia doesn't have it. I managed to jimmy it up using the closest size they had with a few really thick washers on one stud, and ended up re-using one of the rounded original nuts on the other side (don't ask me how that actually worked). Needless to say I will be replacing those things with factory stuff ASAP.

If I had just had two good replacement nuts, it would have been easy as hell. Without those, it turned into far too much stress -- trying to get your car not to leak exhaust viciously at 10pm when all the parts stores are closed and you need it for work the next morning is NOT happy.

As to whether it made a difference, that is a definite yes-sir. There is noticeably more punch above 3k RPM -- the power seems to build sooner and stick around longer rather than coming on almost like a switch at 4k (when the intake manifold hits that crazy resonance) and falling totally flat above 5.5k. Mind you, reading around the forums I nearly fell into the trap of believing that it totally transforms the car, which I can definitely say is NOT the case -- even coming from an old, rusted stock Y-pipe with a totally beat flex section and at least one leak. But yeah, it's a good mod.

I'm truly shocked that none of the studs broke, and seeing how much rust was on them I consider myself VERY lucky and would NOT recommend taking that chance to anyone else with my model year and mileage. As far as Cattman is concerned, though, the experience was great.

 

Home Depot doesn't carry metric sized fasteners. Ace or Lowe's is your best bet for those.

 

For anyone looking to get any of the nasty, rusty bolts off, the Seafoam DeepCreep stuff (available at NAPA) works like a charm. You pop some on, wait for a bit, go back and they slide off like butter. Well worth the sub-$5 investment IMO... unless you want to just get new ones from Ace's or wherever.

 

i'm planning on installing headers which would be similar to doing the Fed manifold swap. you'll need an o2 simulator for the two downstream o2 and keep them plugged in to there harness and stow them in the engine comparment somewhere as a fed spec y-pipe will not have bungs for there install. without the o2 simulator, or disconnecting the sensors will throw cause fault codes. if you don't care about having fault codes, the downstream o2's only job is to make sure the primary o2's are working. they will not cause any drivability issues if not installed.

 

Thanks for the valuable info. I'm planning on fabricating my own Y pipe, so the bungs can be tig welded in with no trouble. If you do the headers, any chance you'd want to part with the old manifolds? I tried a local yard, and they say the Feds make them cut them up. The only way to get factory manifolds is to buy new. I'd rather do headers if I'm going to drop that kind of coin on the exhaust. I may fab up some headers too. I need a template to work with though.

 

i'm also CA-Spec so my manifold wouldn't help you. try the For Sale section as there's always someone parting out there max.

 

Thanks for the help jac121479. I've checked the for sale area and have a couple options.