The heat shield on the catalytic converter on my '95 is rattling and unless there is a clever fix like the stainless steel hose clamp solution for the down pipe heat shield I think I need a replacement. The cheapest bolt on replacement appears to be the Managflow 23696 for $85 from Performance Peddler. Has anyone used one of these? Are they OK or junk? Thank you.
Thanks Chris, that gives me confidence to go for it... and I love the idea about reusing the studs.
Chris (or anyone else that may happen to read this), I received the magnaflow cat. It appears to be the correct size but the flanges are not threaded, they are just holes. My local auto parts store only has exhaust bolts for threaded units (one short threaded side, one long threaded side, one nut). I guess I will try a regular hardware store for a bolt that can do the job. Can you tell me if you had to removed the cat-back section to get the old cat out? Or did you just cut the cat? With the bolts pointing out each end of the cat something has to move out of the way in order to remove it. Since I don't have a lift using a sawsall was not possible (can't fit the sawsall under the car). Thank you for any tips that you may have. Regards,
Hi Chris,
the exhaust system will have some give on the rubber hangers, enough to get it past the threaded bolts on the catalytic converter.
That said, I still had one bolt/nut completely freeze up on my '96M, and this was a number years ago. That one required cutting, which as you pointed out, was not easy to do without a lift. That one required some contortionist tricks.
I used some bolts that I picked up at the hardware store and they worked fine. The aftermarket cat was on there for a few years before the car was wrecked.
Good luck!
Pat
Thanks Pat! That is very helpful.
Just a follow up regarding the Managflow 23696 bolt on replacement cat for the NA. It passed New York State inspection! It was advertised as
50 state legal but I understand NY to be a close second to CA's strict emission testing and given how much cheaper it was to anything else on the market I had my doubts about passing... but it was not a problem. Hope this helps someone else that need to replace their cat.
That is excellent news! Did you have nay problems with the installation?
Pat
the only surprise with the product was that it did not come with bolts in the flanges like the oem cat that was removed had. but it wasn't a big deal to get a set of bolts for the job and it argulably makes it easier to install (no need to push things apart to position the new cat between the down pipe and the catback). it appears that even the oem replacement cats are like this given the picture of one on finishlineperformance.com. regards,
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