Catalitic converter

[Mangjura]

This may sound kinda odd but, one of my cats literally fell off ! I dont have the money right now to get a new one or to have one welded on.
So one side of the engine has the full exaust & the other has the manifold & about a foot of pipe, that's it.

My question is could this cause a problem with my engine if I drive her like this for a while? I'm thinking two weeks at the most.

[82LTDQS]

Should be fine. I would go ahead and hack off the other one. get some flexy pipe from the parts house with some clamps.

[88Vic]

Did you pick up the cat off the road? You can put it on with an exhaust clamp which should hold for now. If not then i'd take the other off and wait until you got money for new cats or if you don't have inspection then new mufflers.

[Mangjura]

The other one is less than a year old. I was going to replace both at the same time but the morons at the parts place couldn't find the passenger side one.

I wish I could just hack it off but I live in emissions hell

[Mangjura]

I did pick it up but it broke off right up against the cat & inside the part that bolts it to the rest of the exaust. So there is no room for a clamp

[FastGallopingPonies]

Find a local Cat converter recyclers, that pre-cat should fetch $20-30, use money to put a piece of flex pipe where it should go as suggested.

[CheeseSteakJim]

As long as you don't leave it with just an open manifold/pipe it should be fine. Swap some exhaust pipe to connect it up with a muffler and you'll be ok, but without a good amount of backpressure you'll risk burning the exhaust valves.

[Tiggie]

Flexy pipe connected to the current exhaust system for a temporary fix. I hate getting gassed in traffic (why none of my cars have or ever will have dumps before the axle).

[85crownHPP]

there are direct fit convertors/pipe on ebay for under $100... flex pipe is a great temporary repair...

[88Vic]

without a good amount of backpressure you'll risk burning the exhaust valves.

Do you mind explaining this? I honestly don't understand why that happens.

[Tiggie]

Do you mind explaining this? I honestly don't understand why that happens.

I've heard that since there is no back pressure, the hot exhaust gases exit too fast and hence the burnt valve. I've heard it's urban legend too, though.

[CheeseSteakJim]

I've heard that since there is no back pressure, the hot exhaust gases exit too fast and hence the burnt valve. I've heard it's urban legend too, though.

That's why I always thought it was true, it sounds way too plausible to be a myth. If you ask me if that's an urban legend then so is the power gains by improving scavenging and the torque gains by maintaining backpressure.

[1987cp]

Mike, y'all still screwing with that? I still have those apparently-intact '81 converters just sitting ....

[Mangjura]

Yes I am still messing with this.

I went & bought some flexy pipe but I didn't check the length so it is too short. I still put in on & I bent it out twards the passenger side. I did notice a slight gain in power, I guess that extra bend added just a tiny bit of back pressure. Either that or I was just really happy to be headding home & just seemed to be going faster. I don't know.

One of the new guys at work said he'll give me his cats & H pipe from his mustang. I just gotta wait for him to take them off.

[1987cp]

Hey, a stock Mustang H-pipe could be a great move - better flow and still pass smog. Does he have a set of Mustang headers to go with it?