Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Gutted cat

Hi Guys. I have a â??95 Contour zetec thatâ??s not doing so well. First problem is this: there is a huge lack of power but I can drive it ok. However, if I drive it on the highway, Iâ??ll be cruisinâ?? about 70 minding my own business, when all of a sudden the top speed just gets lower and lower until I get to around 45 mph and itâ??s like something resets and I can get back up to 70 for a while. The lack of power is always there and I have to let her warm up a little before I can drive her. Iâ??ve recently discovered that I the highway problem happens, I can shift her to neutral and let the rpmâ??s go down, and put her back into drive and Iâ??m ok. Also, the exhaust smells sweet and it kind of makes you sick (I know all exhaust makes you sick ) The other problem is this: The exhaust was terribly loud so I took off the entire thing from the manifold back. It was mostly in good shape except for a huge hole in my resonator. So I welded in some straight pipe in its place. But I think I made a boo-boo. I gutted the cat while it was off. It wasnâ??t plugged or anything, I just thought it would give me more power. Now I think it was a bonehead move because now I have almost no power and just barely made it around the block. I donâ??t know if itâ??s just that bad because of the other problem or what. Iâ??ve looked up past entries on this site but I canâ??t find an answer. I have seen entries saying that there is a way to trick the car into thinking the cat is good but this â??95 has only 1 o2 sensor thatâ??s in the exhaust manifold and the posts said to use the o2 wiring harness that comes after the cat. Any help would be appreciated thanks!

By gutting the main cat you opened up a giant opening in the exaust system so you lose gas momentum as soon as it hits that open chamber. The quick fix is to get a piece of pipe that will slide inside the cat and weld that into place.

From the sounds of it, your manifold cats are the ones that are clogged and causing the power loss. You need to gut them or replace them. I would not recommend gutting them on the car though as any open exhaust valve potentially lets those particles into the engine.

I off manifold gutting as a service if you want to send them to me. Just drop me a PM or email. I usually offer a core exchange service but I don't have any 95 cores.

Thanks,
Rick

I have had the manifold off and inspected it for cracks but I don't see where there are pre-cats in there. I thought that the four holes just mold into one. I did look inside it but I didn't see anything. Are you sure that this year had pre-cats? Maybe I overlooked them. I will weld a straight pipe in the gutted cat though thanks!

That's EXACTLY what it smells like however I've kept a close watch on the coolant level and have found no change