Thanks Mike, I was reading and saw you stated the cat protection comes in earlier with the gt500s at 2 seconds opposed to 5-7 seconds. Is it possible I could keep stock cats and get whipple to bring the cat protection in earlier? Would that be safer?
I had tried some tricks to get my stock cats to last longer, which didn't work. I went further on my Roush F-150, only to fail those as well. Granted, it appears as though stock truck cats are weaker than stock mustang gt cats.
Are you driving them aggressively? Just trying to get an idea of your driving style. Just wondering because there’s a good amount of high mileage stock cats out there. The performance shop near me is also telling me with whipple tune i won’t have issue and that they do 3 a week
I don’t consider myself to be an aggressive driver. When the truck cats failed I was doing just a single gear pull trying to diagnose a tuning issue.
So Dynoing the car on stock cars may be a bit sketchy.
So many different opinions on it. All performance shops near me is also telling me with whipple tune. Also doesn’t get hotter than 87F here if that makes any difference
If you look at the Gen 1 vs the Gen 2, the way the pipes enter the "collector" has been changes. Why? Who knows. Maybe the Gen 3 set up works better. Again. Who knows. And why they welded the cats onto it but not the other side? Who knows. At any rate, to swap from one to another you have to pull the stock manifold out any way (nothing is easy. You have to pull the motor mount. You can't support the engine under the oil pan so you need a support bar), so why not just pull it and add a flange to the existing manifold? Any competent welder can handle that job easily and you take the guess work out of whether there is an operational difference from Gen 1 to Gen 3. You just have to mock it up, make sure everything aligns, and mark it. Once it's tacked, then you have to bang the pipe round so it sits flush in the flange. My opinion. OR don't take it out, tig weld the flange on the inside (leave enough flange so there is a surface to weld to). You can leave it on the car for that. Just means you have to find a shop that is wiling to fit everything up and weld it. Less work for you but costs more (unless you have a buddy with a shop, tig welder, and someone that know how to use it). Kooks sell the flanges. You might be able to get on from 2M Fabricators.
I had the GENSi, Gsport, green cats on my 13 Shelby with kooks long tube headers. That's the Gen 1 version. No CEL, no failures. I didn't use the anti foulers. I'm in the process of installing the Gen 2 versions that are suppose to handle 750hp each and are for FI. It's a pain in the ass job due to the lack of a flange on the drivers side. Nowhere near as bad as installing long tubes, but none the less... Sometimes if you use extenders on the wiring it causes issues. Make sure you plug the sensor directly to the oem harness.
Here's a question. How does the PCM monitor cat temp/apply COT? Is that from the rear sensors? If so, what happens if you move the sensors (down stream, de foulers). Would t that give a false reading (lower temp, mis reading what's coming out of the cat)?
The driver's side header w/cat is actually quite easy to remove. You just have to get the car high enough to get the header out and unhook the steering shaft. The bolts are all accessible and it just drops out the bottom. No real issue here on the driver's side.
This is exactly what I did. Correctly locating the cut, "rounding" the header outlet, tacking, installing, fit testing the converter, making adjustments, etc...is a bit of a job. I'm just saying I think it would be easier to make a short adapter. I did something similar in my truck (short adapter with 2 flanges) and it was much easier than direct fitting.
This sounds just horrible to try to cut the manifold and weld it on the inside while still in the car, especially considering how easy it is to remove the stock header.
It's an "inferred"/calculated temperature. I've actually dug pretty deep into this. The pcm calculates exhaust temp as a function of load, rpm, cam timing, lambda, timing relative to MBT, ECT, MCT, ethanol%, time, mis-fires, and many other factors. I've actually installed thermocouples and logged mid-bed temp vs calculated cat temps, which of course just generated more questions.
Accountants strike again. No real sensor. Oh well. If they don't melt you are ok
That's what MAC suggests. There is room under there to cut it off with a Sawzall or a chain cutter. Mock up the exhaust pipe/flange, tack it and the tig the inside. Probably impossible to do on your back. Is it ideal. Nope. Best to weld on the back side. That means taking it off.
So you don't need to remove the mount/studs? Even with the cat connected? I can get it 2.5 feet up. I was thinking of cutting the cat off which would give me lots of room. Cut ahead or behind the weld.
Getting the drivers side out in one piece is super easy. No need to remove the motor mount or manifold studs. You just jack it up, remove intermediate pipe, disconnect steering column, 8 flange bolts, then drop it out.
