Hi All,

 

I'm thinking of getting the exhaust de-catted on my 1990 TT auto. The mechanic I spoke to seems to think he'll need to weld a piece of pipe in the place of the cat - does that sound correct??

 

I thought it would be possible to remove the internals and leave the original pipework in place - any ideas...??

 

Cheers,

 

RobH

My personal opinion is to buy de-cat (sometimes called 'test') pipes and just bolt 'em on. That way you can always put the cats back if you need to. That's what I've done.

 

To my mind knocking the guts out of the cat and putting it back will effectively create an expansion chamber halfway down the exhaust - doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Go for a CAT free front/middle section. You can get them easy enough (Johnny, Z Centre, Mike Feeney etc). You did not say what year your car was, isn't there something with emissions after August '92 (K reg onwards) when CAT's were made legal and as they were part of the standard build you could have problems with your MOT. They don't take a lot of putting on, so if you have a you can swap 'em if you do - or pay for new ones if you 'gut' them.

CAT free adds to the power if you have a induction kit or something on the front that lets it breathe better.

Taking off the CATS does give more power but it does decrease the back pressure, which can lead to the seals on the turbo going. So it's worth checking these first.