Just how hard is it to take the pre cats off the car?

[Damien]

A lot of people taking some risk to gut them while on the car. I am getting a set of them already gutted (want to keep the old stockers handy as I hear they may be implimenting a sniffer soon here), and was wondering how hard is it... maybe just due to old rusty bolts? Also wanted to know if the pre cats from an SVT will fit on my 99 se? Thanks for the help! Oh and I did search, but everything is kinda a mess now. Needless to say I didn't find what I wanted... plus I need to get my post count up

[Jason43]

Its a major PITA. 6-8 hours, maybe longer if you dont have any experience with it. If you're going to the trouble of taking both maniflds off, it would be a shame not to have a set of headers to put back on instead of just gutted cats.

[RandyCSVT]

It takes a long time, and even longer if you have rusted bolts. Don't bother removing your stock manifolds unless you are adding headers.

[todras]

Worst idea ev3r!

[Big Daddy Kane]

Like they said...

It's such a PITA to take them off... imagine putting them back on!

I had to use a big ass extension with 2 swivel joints at the end.

For the 3 top bolts on the firewall side, had to use the shortest deep well socket that would fit and the shortest 3/8" ratchet and attack it from above. I had enough room to make 1 click, 2 if I moved around the wiring while wrenching on it .

Of course, I had a drive on lift at my disposal, where as most people on here do it on their backs... which must suck hardcore

NOT something you wanna get into and have to do again in a few months when your car fails emissions...

However, if you do decide to tackle this, people have passed sniffers w/o the precats. Just make sure your main cats are in good shape.

[Damien]

thanks guys for the enlightenment! Looks like I'm not even gonna mess with it. I was going to buy rawburts pre cats, but don't have the cash. Might as well save up for some msds headers from the sound of it... If I'm going to tempt failing emmisions might as well do it right!