It's all set no leaks over here.It's not a matter of being cheap or not.Pre cat gaskets are not a crush gasket style gasket.Thanks for the negative input as usual stormz It is expected on here from time to time but i really don't give half a **** what people say unless it's something positive.Im not telling people to not use new gaskets but i didn't and my cars fine, Then again it's not a beat max with a million miles either.Just like when i dropped my car on the stock struts and everyone said don't do it it's gonna ride like a bag off *** and here we are months later and still riding mint with no blown struts or suspension parts.

Looks like tunnel vision when you try & look at the sun with it. Insanely tightly packed honeycomb.


My 4th gens been on Eibachs and stock struts for 11 years

I'm cheap too, popped my IM off many times, never changed the gaskets, now w/ spacers, don't have to.

BUT, when I repaired the rear header, I did get new gaskets because of the PITA nature of the install.

Im not sure if you can gut the front pre-cat on the car either because it's got that bend in it and the ceramic crap is on the top but i could be wrong

Beats me, Hotshot. It sure does seem to be going around in circles.

This is the front pre-cat for our cars:



The picture is an Eastern Catalytic product.

And here's the rear pre-cat:



And here's the main-cat:

Two things.

First, I'm going to say that the majority of the sound difference comes from the front precat. I did that one first and it was night and day different. No discernible sound difference after I later gutted the rear. The front has a great deal more potential for turbulence than the rear. I'm going to stick with that correlation.

Second, many people(including Rochester's mechanic) have, indeed, gutted the rear precat while on the car. Lots of documentation out there on this board. It doesn't seem very efficient, but it can be done.

One of my biggest regrets in Maxima world is when I bought crappy aftermarket precats...Should've gut the old ones.And what is more dumb is I left my old ones at the mechanic

Thumbs up. You solved my problem playa.
I gutted my mid-cat and everytime I come out the car, I smell the burn coming right at me from the bottom. After reading your comment, I changed my gaskets and walaaaaaaaaa. Problem solved

Bought both front pre-cats from DaveB with all needed gaskets. If I recall, friend of mine installed the rear BANK 1 precat (firewall) and was saying something about extra gaskets. The front BANK 2 precat (radiator) was installed at a shop and I did not hear any complaints from the mechanic.

Another idea is to use the spray copper gasket over the exhaust gaskets, give it a few coats and it'll be good as new.

Why even take the chance of re-using the gaskets, unless you really want to go back under the car to troubleshoot some problems.

With the right tools you can gut the rear precat while it's on the car. I'm sure it will take a lot longer to do but my bolts on the rear precat just wont come off. I havent tried heating them yet.

Rochester, what tools did your mechanic use to gut it while it was on the car?

An impact chisel. Probably other things too, to clean it out to the walls, but I wasn't there for the work. When he started the rear cat, he was sure that was the best approach. By the time he was done (almost 2 hours later), he was re-thinking that decision.

so he was blasting all the substrate and debris from inside the cat up towards your motor from the bottom ?? When we took it off it filled the whole shop with a huge cloud of ****. And as far as it getting gutted on the car well, I guess i would have to see it to belive it..I don't see how it's possible without cutting it and re welding it.

Don't crucify me for reviving this thread, but I laid on my back with the car jacked up and I gutted the rear while on the car, I used a 1/2 inch drill bit, a spade bit the size of the hole in the cat, 10 inch long bent nose plyers, and a pry bar.

Would there be none between the y-pipe and each precat?

Also, I am trying to get OEM and trying to order them online but I'm having trouble finding them.