I don't have a lift or drive on rack so I can't see this detail... Are the PreCats on a 2001 coupe bolted to the headers or welded???

Just wondering because I see some forum members removed them and previous C5's don't have them! :yesnod:

 

Very welded. As a matter of fact, the main cats are welded, too. There is no "off-road" flanged pipe that you can bolt in where the cats are. Both are a torch job, for sure.

I gutted my pup (pre) cats, as detailed in another thread. Very difficult. :cuss I recommend having the cats cut out and new pipe welded in, if you want to risk failing the emissions visual test. They'll probably know if your year is supposed to have pups, but maybe they won't look, if the tailpipe sniff passes.

 

Oh... hmmmm... considerations huh! Thanks for the info. I thought about long tube headers... guess I can forget about that one since I drive my car everyday.

Hey... My girlfriend lives in Alexandria not far from Old Town... a few streets down from a large Mall... the one with the food court on the 3rd level.

 

So what are you doing in Houston? :confused: Anyway, that would be Landmark Mall, at the intersection of I395 and Duke Street. They have a Sears with a reasonably good tool department. :D I live and work at the other end of Duke street, right where it runs into the river. That would be the Old Town district, of course.

Many guys here have headers, both long and shortie. As for me, I'm DONE with headers on anything I have that is a driver. I've been fighting leaks and rattles and steering interferences and road damage and noise and "header tick" for 3 decades. :mad :cry It took me a year to decide whether or not to put B&B's on my car...which was a good move after all. But, for my purposes, the modern, well engineered manifolds on the LS1 suit me just fine. A heads and cam car, or strokers, racing, etc, would be another story, of course.

 

Thanks for the info.... I was just wondering! Sounds like I should stay with the stockers.

Well, me and her is a long story... but we are seeing where things go! Besides the year-round warm weather in Houston is perfect for my Vette.


:cheers:

 

Yeah, I don't mean to wee-wee on headers, per se. I understand that most of the current header mfgs make quality stuff that are nothing like the flimsy, leaky, cheapo street headers from the 60's and 70's.

But they're just not for me and my C5.

I'll keep my eye out for your girlfriend..... ;)

 

I just gutted mine yesterday, and it took about an hour total. I do have a lift so that made it easy. I would say that it is not that had to gut them, you just need a few good screwdrivers and a hammer. :smash:

If I picked up any horsepower(word is that it cost you 5 h.p. to have pups) I could not feel it. Its just nice to know there not there anymore. :D

 

I had mine cut off with a sawzall.

 

Roger--

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I strongly suspect that you left much loose debris in those flanges at the front and rear of the pup. Do you recall a flange with a gap between it and the actual pup wall? Welll.....it took me 2 minutes to bust the HONEYCOMB out of the cat with screwdrivers and such, just like you. But I spent an additional SIX hours picking little bits of junk out of this gap. I mean, there is LOTS of stuff trapped in there that you can't vacuum out. I had to pick at it with flattened and sharpened coathanger wire, formed into different shapes to get at both the front and rear flange gaps. Honestly, I actually gave up after so long (I was still getting little bits of stuff, even then!!) and put the exhaust back together.

Any junk that makes its way to the main cats CAN NOT get thru the honeycomb there, and you've just plugged your exhaust, at least to some extent.

Clearly, the Sawzall approach is the way to go, but again, I feel you have to do something after you weld up the new straight pipe inserts to ABSOLUTELY make sure you don't have any sawing chips in the pipe/main cats. So....after the new inserts are in place and everything lines up, you then should take the exhaust down, turn it vertical and tap on the pipes to jiggle the fillings out of the bellmouth openings.

But, it's a free 5-8 hp, depending on who you believe. :cool:

 

Very welded. Cut them off, gut them out and re-weld them in place. If you have someone that can weld reasonably well, nobody will know they were touched. :D

Bob