Watchful
Enthusiast
I'm installing aftermarket cats and a 3" aftermarket exhaust (intentionally not mentioning which ones, because I'm not intending to malign anyone at all here). The new cats are installed, and went in easily enough. I could not get the new exhaust to slide over the cat pipe initially, it was all too tight on the tolerances, so I had the exhaust expanded a little bit. Now I can slide it over the cat pipe a couple of inches, but I can't get it far enough over the cat pipe to properly align the tip.
It looks like it needs to slide on about another inch, but the inside of the exhaust has a seam/weld where the neck meets the main muffler, and the cat pipe seems to be hitting that and obviously it won't slide any further.
The cat pipe seems to match the stock cat pipe length well, so although I haven't measured it to the nearest millimeter, I believe it is extremely close in length.
My choices appear to be that I either have to try and grind/smooth out the weld inside the exhaust, or cut an inch or so off of the cat pipes to make it all fit. I called the vendors of both parts and neither has heard of this being needed before; this makes me nervous. I am waiting for a call back from the exhaust manufacturer. The headers are stock, so it all should line up.
I searched the forums, but there are so many matches for exhaust or cats that I couldn't read all the threads. I did not find any mention of a Gen 3 owner needing to cut any pipes to install cats or exhaust. Maybe it's just something no-one mentions, or maybe no-one really ever has to do this, and I'm doing something wrong. It's all bolt-on, so there's not many places that I could be screwing it up. Before I go cutting pipes, I want to make absolutely sure. I'm looking for advice.
Finally, the question: do you know of anyone that had to cut pipes to get everything to fit on a Gen 3?
Thanks,
Paul.
It looks like it needs to slide on about another inch, but the inside of the exhaust has a seam/weld where the neck meets the main muffler, and the cat pipe seems to be hitting that and obviously it won't slide any further.
The cat pipe seems to match the stock cat pipe length well, so although I haven't measured it to the nearest millimeter, I believe it is extremely close in length.
My choices appear to be that I either have to try and grind/smooth out the weld inside the exhaust, or cut an inch or so off of the cat pipes to make it all fit. I called the vendors of both parts and neither has heard of this being needed before; this makes me nervous. I am waiting for a call back from the exhaust manufacturer. The headers are stock, so it all should line up.
I searched the forums, but there are so many matches for exhaust or cats that I couldn't read all the threads. I did not find any mention of a Gen 3 owner needing to cut any pipes to install cats or exhaust. Maybe it's just something no-one mentions, or maybe no-one really ever has to do this, and I'm doing something wrong. It's all bolt-on, so there's not many places that I could be screwing it up. Before I go cutting pipes, I want to make absolutely sure. I'm looking for advice.
Finally, the question: do you know of anyone that had to cut pipes to get everything to fit on a Gen 3?
Thanks,
Paul.
