Anatomy of the cat that was killed by curiosity
10-29-2009, 06:50 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Shattuck, Oklahoma
Posts: 401
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Anatomy of the cat that was killed by curiosity
It rained last night, leaving the fields wet and nothing for me to do, SO I decided it was time to take off the cat from my dodge.
I decided the easiest way would be to just hollow it out, since I didn't really want to leave the house. ...I'm lazy, I know.
I found the easiest way to disconnect the cat from the rest of the exhaust was to cut slits in the sides of the pipes where they connect and pry them apart. I realized this after using a torch to heat the pipe up with no luck, and forgetting it was hot before burning two of my fingers.
Once I had the cat on the garage floor, I started smashing away at whatever was inside of it. (im assuming these are platinum cats on our trucks?)
I wore a dust mask while doing this because it produced a lot of ceramic/platinum/whatever dust.
After using re-bar for about 30 minutes without making so much as a hole in the crap, I just decided to cut the stupid thing in two pieces and weld it back together when I was done.. So I did, and took a 10lb sledge hammer to it and got the job done in about 10 seconds. The attached pictures are what I found.
The center was the ceramic/platinum/whatever honeycomb which had smaller holes in it than I realized, (I don't see how exhaust can pass through this that easily) and the whole thing had a fabric heat protector around it which I'm assuming was some sort of asbestos?
SO after I was done with pictures, I put it all back together pretty much the same way it came apart and it really wasn't that hard to do.
The Results:
I really can't tell that it made much of a difference in power, the exhaust noise is a little deeper, but still not near as good as a straight pipe. The best thing about this is MY PICKUP SMELLS LIKE IT BURNS DIESEL NOW!!!!!!!!!
Although the EPA says I will have lung cancer by the end of the year, I'm glad I did it!
I decided the easiest way would be to just hollow it out, since I didn't really want to leave the house. ...I'm lazy, I know.
I found the easiest way to disconnect the cat from the rest of the exhaust was to cut slits in the sides of the pipes where they connect and pry them apart. I realized this after using a torch to heat the pipe up with no luck, and forgetting it was hot before burning two of my fingers.
Once I had the cat on the garage floor, I started smashing away at whatever was inside of it. (im assuming these are platinum cats on our trucks?)
I wore a dust mask while doing this because it produced a lot of ceramic/platinum/whatever dust.
After using re-bar for about 30 minutes without making so much as a hole in the crap, I just decided to cut the stupid thing in two pieces and weld it back together when I was done.. So I did, and took a 10lb sledge hammer to it and got the job done in about 10 seconds. The attached pictures are what I found.
The center was the ceramic/platinum/whatever honeycomb which had smaller holes in it than I realized, (I don't see how exhaust can pass through this that easily) and the whole thing had a fabric heat protector around it which I'm assuming was some sort of asbestos?
SO after I was done with pictures, I put it all back together pretty much the same way it came apart and it really wasn't that hard to do.
The Results:
I really can't tell that it made much of a difference in power, the exhaust noise is a little deeper, but still not near as good as a straight pipe. The best thing about this is MY PICKUP SMELLS LIKE IT BURNS DIESEL NOW!!!!!!!!!
Although the EPA says I will have lung cancer by the end of the year, I'm glad I did it!
10-29-2009, 07:06 PM
#3
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Shattuck, Oklahoma
Posts: 401
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yeah im sure it wasn't cheap, but my warranty ran out, and I've NEVER heard of anyone getting smog checked around here, so I didn't really see the point of having it if I hated it!
10-29-2009, 07:30 PM
#4
Registered User
Wow, do you still have the guts to that thing? Bag it up, send it to me and I'll give you $100 for the 'garbage'.
You know why they cost so much? Yes, it's the platinum. More expensive than gold.
My uncle owned a gold mine and when I took a cat off an old 1 ton van, he was there vacuuming the dust off the ground. Said he got about $400 worth of platinum out of the thing. I know they were $900 new at the time....
You know why they cost so much? Yes, it's the platinum. More expensive than gold.
My uncle owned a gold mine and when I took a cat off an old 1 ton van, he was there vacuuming the dust off the ground. Said he got about $400 worth of platinum out of the thing. I know they were $900 new at the time....
10-29-2009, 07:38 PM
#5
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Shattuck, Oklahoma
Posts: 401
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Wow, do you still have the guts to that thing? Bag it up, send it to me and I'll give you $100 for the 'garbage'.
You know why they cost so much? Yes, it's the platinum. More expensive than gold.
My uncle owned a gold mine and when I took a cat off an old 1 ton van, he was there vacuuming the dust off the ground. Said he got about $400 worth of platinum out of the thing. I know they were $900 new at the time....
You know why they cost so much? Yes, it's the platinum. More expensive than gold.
My uncle owned a gold mine and when I took a cat off an old 1 ton van, he was there vacuuming the dust off the ground. Said he got about $400 worth of platinum out of the thing. I know they were $900 new at the time....
Trending Topics
10-30-2009, 09:16 AM
#9
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Southern Maryland
Posts: 189
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
So, let me get this straight, you hated the cat. So, instead of replacing it with a straight pipe, you pulled the $1100 part and destroyed it, then welded the shell back together and reinstalled it on the truck.
To add to that you documented the crime with photographs and posted it on a public web page.
Now your truck smells more than it did before, you have no more power than you had before and probably did not improve the fuel mileage at all either, but your happy you did it.
To add to that you documented the crime with photographs and posted it on a public web page.
Now your truck smells more than it did before, you have no more power than you had before and probably did not improve the fuel mileage at all either, but your happy you did it.
10-30-2009, 09:19 AM
#10
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Shattuck, Oklahoma
Posts: 401
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
So, let me get this straight, you hated the cat. So, instead of replacing it with a straight pipe, you pulled the $1100 part and destroyed it, then welded the shell back together and reinstalled it on the truck.
Now your truck smells more than it did before, you have no more power than you had before and probably did not improve the fuel mileage at all either, but your happy you did it.
Now your truck smells more than it did before, you have no more power than you had before and probably did not improve the fuel mileage at all either, but your happy you did it.
10-30-2009, 10:51 AM
#11
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 8,803
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
A CAT can be had for around $100 used. I don't know if those innards are gonna be worth all that.
Being yet another lazy person, I would have just put a piece of straight pipe in there instead of going through the hassle you did cutting it open and all....
Being yet another lazy person, I would have just put a piece of straight pipe in there instead of going through the hassle you did cutting it open and all....
10-30-2009, 11:40 AM
#12
Registered User
I understand why Rat did it!!! Same as me, he wanted to see what was in it, to do it himself, just to do it!
Like I said Rat, my uncle did this for a living so he did it himself. I think he used mercury just like he does with gold.
He had this huge gold mine, with excavators and dump trucks, and conveyors and crushers all over the place. The rocks would get crushed and shook and of course any big chunks get pulled out easily, but it all ended up in a couple of 5 gallon pails of tiny rock bits that he'd take home and put on this spiral spinning thing in his bathtub. Water from the shower flowed over it and washed out the rock, leaving just gold flakes. Kind of like panning gold.
Then the waste powder was tumbled with mercury on his kitchen counter in mayonnaise jars. The mercury grabs the gold dust and emalgumates (sp?) it and then he used something else that separated the mercury from the gold. He had these little baby jars of gold all around the house, and boy were they HEAVY!
He sold the mine when his partners walked off with a fortune. Hard to believe all those giant earth movers and people would end up with a guy in his bathtub and mayonnaise jars...
Anyway, DON'T throw away that cat! If it was worth my rich uncle crawling around on the lawn with a shop vac sucking up bits of waste, I'm sure it's worth it for you to keep the guts.
Like I said Rat, my uncle did this for a living so he did it himself. I think he used mercury just like he does with gold.
He had this huge gold mine, with excavators and dump trucks, and conveyors and crushers all over the place. The rocks would get crushed and shook and of course any big chunks get pulled out easily, but it all ended up in a couple of 5 gallon pails of tiny rock bits that he'd take home and put on this spiral spinning thing in his bathtub. Water from the shower flowed over it and washed out the rock, leaving just gold flakes. Kind of like panning gold.
Then the waste powder was tumbled with mercury on his kitchen counter in mayonnaise jars. The mercury grabs the gold dust and emalgumates (sp?) it and then he used something else that separated the mercury from the gold. He had these little baby jars of gold all around the house, and boy were they HEAVY!
He sold the mine when his partners walked off with a fortune. Hard to believe all those giant earth movers and people would end up with a guy in his bathtub and mayonnaise jars...
Anyway, DON'T throw away that cat! If it was worth my rich uncle crawling around on the lawn with a shop vac sucking up bits of waste, I'm sure it's worth it for you to keep the guts.
10-30-2009, 01:40 PM
#13
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Southern Maryland
Posts: 189
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It's cheap entertainment for me. Didn't mean to rain on your parade man.
10-30-2009, 03:15 PM
#14
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Shattuck, Oklahoma
Posts: 401
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Oh its alright, i didn't mean to gripe either, I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Rain = wet fields and no money for me, so you can see where im coming from!