Friday, December 06, 2013 - 07:46 pm, by: John Stafford(Johng12)
First, Can someone tell me the diameter of the standard exhaust on a V8? Second, What are the preferred replacement catalytic converters, cost and where to buy?
Tuesday, December 24, 2013 - 04:58 pm, by: John Stafford(Johng12)
Got stainless steel hi flow cats (200s) off ebay on special for about $112 each, they are 2 1/2 inch and fit exactly over the existing exhaust pipe that goes back to the resonator. I picked them up from Browns plains (Brisbane). The cats seemed to be good quality and thickness with a bung you can remove to fit an O2 sensor or a pyrometer or a wideband sensor if you have an AFR gauge, which I do, to help me tune my LPG.
I got new flanges for the back of the seller too, to make the re manufacturing process easier. I measured and figured out how they should face and then cut the front flanges off the old cats and, with my home welder and mild steel rods, tacked them onto the new cats in the right place, along with the new back ones, exactly 250mls from outside to outside of the flanges.
I had to take them on and off the car a couple of times to be sure they fitted exactly, and then took them to a welding shop and had them tig welded up with stainless, properly. The whole deal cost me $310 (flanges, cats, welding and some new bolts that I had to buy from Toyota as I had to butcher some to get the old ones off).
Note, if you are doing exhaust get the real Toyota bolts as they are hi tensile and corrode much less than other bolts, not made for the job.
Another hint is to use a single hex socket in good condition to undo the bolts or as with me the multi hex socket slipped and rounded the slightly corroded nuts so that I had to die grind 2 of them off, one from each side where the cat joined the manifold. I also had to use an angle grinder to cut the heads of 2 bolts on the back end of the cats, after they rounded off. Use a single hex socket in good condition and is should not happen.
Ross Pesina DieHard Vic Soarer V8, Soarer T, Supra TT.