OK, so what should have been a simple bolt-in job took me about 6 hours and more curse words than I thought I knew. I of course PB Blastered all the nuts and bolts a few days before hand.
I was able to get all the nuts/bolts loose easily with my Deep 14mm socket and about 8 inches of extensions on my breaker bar EXCEPT the nut closest to the frame (the one 'between' the pipes).
That thing was a sonofa*****. The factory piping on the cat was *just* too wide and *just* too bent over the nut to allow me to fit my breaker bar in, even with any combination of extensions or swivels.
3 things in the way; 1) the sway bar mount/sway bar itself, 2) the frame, 3) the piping itself.
1)The sway bar mount meant that I didn't have straight shot at it from underneath like the other nuts and it's welded to the frame, so it's there permanently.
2)The frame was in the way on the far passenger side and started to arch upwards in such a way that I couldn't fit anything but a 14mm combination wrench in a very tight area from the side.
3)There are 2 pipes coming from the exhaust manifolds (due to 2 manifolds) that then morph into one pipe that then go to the cat. Simple enough? Nope. There's a bunch of steel 'filler' between the 2 pipes, so there's never open air between the 2. The 'filler' is not straight and uniform, but just kinda glopped in there, which makes it a ***** to get a socket around.
Fun fact: Unless I'm blind (which is possible) you can't find a 6 point combination wrench at Home Depot or Lowes. I have several sets of combination wrenches, and all are 12 point. 12 point wrenches are fine, but a whole lot more likely to strip a nut/bolt than a 6 point. I can only find a 6 point set online, and they are expensive. After failing to find a 6 point, I figured I'd REALLY try with a 12point, and stop if I noticed any weird movement.
Even with another wrench hooked on the end as an extension, that thing would not budge (actually slightly pulled my back trying - try pulling down towards your feet while lying on your back). Even like half a can of PB Blaster and heat would not get that thing to budge.
Another fun fact: 1/2" drive SHALLOW sockets are also apparently only available online.
I could fit a 14mm 3/8" drive shallow socket and my small 3/8" drive breaker bar in there, but couldn't get enough leverage. I for the life of me could not find a 1/2" drive SHALLOW socket anywhere in stores. All I (or the stores) had were deep sockets, which would not fit under the bend of the catalytic converter piping.
So what else did I have left? Saw-zall, of course. I have a Milwaukee M12 Fuel Hackzall that is giving my wife a run for her money in the amount of positions I can get that thing in. :reddance:
Seriously though, I have lost count of the amount of completely different things I've used it on. I don't know how I survived without it.
I was able to disconnect the cat pipe from the muffler pipe easily with those 2 bolts, then I just chopped the cat right out. Then I disconnected the harness for the front O2 sensor and chopped the piping around the O2 sensor. I just removed the O2 sensor on the bench afterwards.
Using a combination of 3 different lengths of blades, 2 completely run-down 2AH small form factor batteries (the larger AH batteries didn't fit in that tight an area) and utmost patience, I was finally able to cut the piping close enough to the mounts to get that pesky 'bend' out of the way. Then, because the rest of the cat was gone, too, I was able to get my breaker bar on. And popped that nut loose in about 2 seconds. Oh, the annoyance.
Then it was as simple as unbolting the bracket and pulling the rest of the cat piping out.
Getting the new cat in was easy; I didn't have to pull the tranny crossmember. The hardest part of the new one was getting both bolts for the post-cat mount to line up. I had to remove the bolts from the frame to the mount was free, attach it to the cat/muffler, then use my knees to push it back up hard to attach it to the frame again.
Everything else fit right up. The best part? The piping on the aftermarket Walker Cat is 2 individual pipes coming from the exhaust manifold, not 2 pipes with a bunch of steel just filling the gap between the 2.
So I could fit a socket with a swivel to tighten that bad boy up!
So casualties were:
-5 Saw-Zall Blades
-A couple good sized slices in the plastic body of my HackZall
-A couple busted knuckles
-A pulled back
-2 huge bruises on my hip and shoulder where I was giving that nut 'umph' and dug into the concrete THROUGH my padded mat.
-A back full of metal filings even through I religiously blew under the T4R with a yard blower after cutting each piece out
On the plus side, my Catalytic converter swap cost me all of $250 including misc parts and runs and sounds great. 40 miles and no CEL yet.
