I knocked out the cat on an uppipe for a Subaru I had. Worked fine. I don't see why you would have any issues. Personally, I'd get a long screwdriver or a piece of rebar and hammer it out rather than using fire. It may be easier to get a long drill bit and poke some holes in the cat material to make it break up easier. Make sure you get it all. Wear a mask. The dust is nasty stuff, and you don't want it in your lungs.

This thread makes me grin.

Many years ago I gutted the pre-cats on my VR-4. With them on the car.

I got under the car, used a half inch auger bit and a power drill. Drill drill drill, yank some crap out with long needle nose pliers, drill drill drill.

I was washing catalytic converter out of my hair and skin for days.

I wouldn't recommend that method to anyone ever hahaha.

Wow. Doing it on the car is pretty ballsy.

They were completely rusted to the turbine flanges. I'd have to take the turbos off of the car, probably the manifolds themselves, to get them off of the car to get the bolts drilled out and blah blah blah.

I'd just done a clutch job on the damn thing that took me 3 days of hard labor to get done. I couldn't afford labor anywhere else and I knew I'd probably never get the turbos out without professional intervention.

That car was a real bitch to work on. Traverse mounted twin turbo V6's FTMFL.

Also, you should have seen the cloud that came out of the car when we started it up afterwards. Was pretty awesome.

By the time I was done, the cat housings were completely empty. Spool was much better, sound was ridiculous. (Already had a test pipe in place for the main cat, and the Borla exhaust I had was ridiculously loud)

You're a braver soul than I to have owned a VR4. A buddy of mine had one that ran really well. When it ran.

Ain't that the truth!

I had a gen 1.5, meaning a 1993.

5 Speed super long geared tranny, forged everything in the engine (as opposed to the 91-92's with cast stuff) but still had the shitty aluminum transfer case.

I ended up cracking the transmission housing @ the transfer case. Instead of snapping the T/C like everyone else did, it cracked the transmission's case, spilling gear oil everywhere.

Then I sold it.

The happiest day of any Mitsubishi owner's life.

oh yeah, wear a respirator, or at the very least a dust mask. There are some pretty nasty heavy metals in there.

Quote for truth.

LOL! :rofl2: Did you try this? It might work if it got hot enough?? I know the red nek way around here is to remove 'em and take an acetylene torch to 'em. -Bonus points if you do it under the car w/'em still attached! Guts 'em really fast! :tup:

No, a did long tube headers