So, after being on back order for 3 months I finally got my Borla exhaust in and installed on Wednesday. Ahhh, the joy was overwhelming until this afternoon when The f'n catalystic converter snapped off at the front flange weld! Talk about pissed -- car went from sounding like a nicely tuned machine, to a WWI fighter plane!

Anyway, so life and lemons and all that......... I decided to just go ahead and upgrade the CAT some (while remaining legal). Since my car is my daily driver I was sort of constrained by time. I looked at the Tantrumwerks piece, but in their infinite wisdom they provide no phone number (presumably to avoid those pesky calls from interested customers). I also spoke with Brent Labree and he was extremely helpful and very accomidating, but the cost was a little more then I could afford due to just getting the exhaust (if money and time weren't issues then I'd have bought his CAT). I ended up getting the Techtonics Stainless Catalytic Converter, which i hope will be a good choice. They were also really helpful and sent it UPS this afternoon.

Anybody have experience with the Techtonics Stainless Catalytic Converter?

 

o ****, that's exactly what happend to me 2 weeks ago, I'm still waiting on my HFC from Tantrumwerks. Them not having a phone number sucks big time, I've emailed them 3 times already and no reply.

 

Brent at Labree told me the factory CATs are known for this problem.

I guess you answered my question about Tantrumwerks having one to send out, but I'm sorry you had to learn the answer this way.

 

After taking the old cat out I can see that it's got a weak weld to the flange. I think it was designed to have on weight pulling on it so the upgraded exhaust without the support bracket is what did it in.

 

That's a very reasonable hypothesis!

 

should have gotten a test pipe. cheap, very cheap

 

yeah -- unfortunately, I wanted to stay legal and all -- silly me.

 

you could do something a little more minded

goto an exhaust shop and have them cut out the cat, or atleast unbolt it
they can order universeable hi-flo Cat's and then should be willing to cut and weld
the flanges on, then there ya go.

or you should have them just weld it in, but its perm

 

The borla has a pretty exceptional warranty so i didn't want to do any cutting and welding of it. I also wanted to keep the setup segmented for future upgrades or repairs.

i suppose i could have just gone the way of having them put flanges on a hi-flow, wonder what that would have cost?

guess it doesn't matte at this point -- the techtonics cat should be at my door tuesday.