[V8] Performance Cats & Muffler

[Buchholz, Steven]

... they are for the 5-speed variant, correct?  I learned the hard way
that the cats for automatics are significantly different than for
5-speeds.

I guess I should take this opportunity to report on the replacement
parts I got from www.DiscountConverter.com ... I ordered a set for #344
a while back ... they have been installed successfully.  For some reason
I had believed that this was simply a source for cats from the same
vendor who supplies the factory parts, but from looking at the product
this is clearly not the case.  I don't know where the company gets the
data showing all of the dimensions for interfaces, but it is clear that
they take this data and synthesize a part that meets the requirements.
The pipes are the correct diameter at the mount points, but between the
attachments at the cat proper the diameter of the pipe is reduced.  The
mounting bracket is a piece of sheet metal without a captive nut.  All
that said, the cats bolted right it (after I Dremel'ed off the old
bolts).  At first blush there did not seem to be much of a performance
penalty ... but I must say I'm still a little disappointed.  The
customer service was very good.

Perhaps the 4.2 is different ... but I fired up the engine when the
header flanges were fully open ... the exhaust note at this point wasn't
as bad as I expected ... in fact I was thinking that the V8 could use a
set of Lake Pipes ... 

Steve B
San Jose, CA (USA)
> 
> Regarding the cats, I hate to go through the effort only to find the
> gutted cats sound too raspy or find trouble at the inspection lane.  A
> good lister has offered a used set, which may do the trick also.