I have met my match, and it is excessive New England rust.

I was driving to work the other day and listening to the sound of my exhaust thinking, "hmmm, it sounds a bit louder than usual..." about 20 seconds later my cat was dragging on the ground and my car was emitting some seriously throaty exhaust sounds.
I had a fully snapped pipe between the resonator and the cat. I was able to string it up with some wire and get it home where the repair began. I removed resonator and the tailpipe up to the muffler without to much problem. Then I had to get the rest of the pipe up to the connector with the cat and it was here that I discovered that the bolts were completely rusted into oblivion and forming one big corroded mass with surrounding connectors.
I tried a few approaches with little success. It's in such an awkward spot that I can't really drill out the rusted bolt unless maybe if I put it up on a lift. I considered grinding down what's left of the nut and hoping at that point it might just pop apart. Maybe I'll give that a shot. Otherwise, I've got to swallow my pride and take it to a mechanic. Blech.

Any miracle cures out there?

 

Red Wrench.

 

I had the same problem on my friends toyota that I maintain. I just grinded both sides of the bolt off and smacked the crap out of it and it came apart. The flange attached to the manifold was actually in fairly good condition after I cleaned it up a bit.

 

Your case sounds extremely severe. PB Blaster or the like most likely won't help. I think you're gonna have to resort to grinding/cutting.

 

i used a sawzall on the bolts between my b pipe and muffler and that took care of them in like 30 seconds after about an hour of trying to cut them with a hack saw before I realized owned an easier alternative

 

I don't know where in new england you are, but I deal with those bolts once a week, I actually just did B-eaze's y-pipe + catback install on Wednsday and I think it was the worst one I've ever seen. Lift & welder FTW. (And WS Y-pipe FTL )

 

Thanks, guys. I'm in Arlington, MA. I'm sure a lift and some torches would help but sadly I don't have either.
I'm going to give it another go tomorrow armed with an open blade hacksaw, some grinding, and possibly the a sawzall. My main concern is that the cat won't hold up if I need to start smacking it with a hammer.
The gasket looks like it's still in good shape so hopefully the two flanges haven't totally corroded together.

If I only lived down south and didn't have to deal with this rusty crap every time I try to do a repair. It really takes the fun out of it.

 

you can pick up a MAP/Oxy torch at lowe's for $50. it has both gases at once and burns hot enough in most cases

 

Yea bud, bolts under there were pretty gruesome... and my warpspeed y pipe flange was larger than the cats.... the exhaust turned out to be messier than i thought but KRRZ350 made it work(thanks dude, hows ur elbow btw?). if ur gonna do it ur self get a angle grinder, sawzall, definitely goin to need to grind/cut every most likely. A lift might help

 

Smoke wrench FTW.....

You could have a muffler shop remove whats left of the cat back and order a new b pipe and muffler setup either aftermarket or stock replacement and install it your self in a half hour. thats the easiest way.

 

A shop might charge you 10 or 15 $$ to pop the bolts out, saves you a ton of time and frurstration! If they pop them out, just have them slap in some bolts that you can get undone when you get home. (they shouldn't be hard at that point)

 

You talking about the nuts on the Y-cat connection? Take the Y off, and work on everything off the car. Makes it a lot easier.

 

Pmohr ... sounds like you might have done this job before ??? Great advice!

 

Hell no, I'm an idiot. If I was smart that's what I would've done, and torched them on the bench.

I ended up hammering on a small socket, getting a 36" breaker bar and a foot or so long extension of pipe, and broke the socket.

So I put on another socket. Broke that one. So I finally grabbed an impact socket, snapped the rusted nut/stud right off.

Mind you, this happened on both sides, so I got attacked by the exhaust when it dropped down a little. I then spent a half hour trying to drill out the studs, slipped and went straight into the converter. I said screw it, might as well finish gutting it. After that was done, brought out the torch and slagged out all 4 studs.

Happily ever after.


...such is the story of my cat.

 

LOL

Proves that if there's the will, there is a way!

 

Hey KRRZ350, where are you located? Anywhere close to Arlington, Mass?