Cutting the bottom off the 'primary muffler' (or what we all recognise as the OE Cat Converter that weighs so much!) will very quickly reveal why it's impossible to just 'knock the honeycomb' out from outside the casing or without cutting things apart on this particular breed of converter!! But people HAVE done the 'cut the bottom' thing and then removed the honeycomb - I'm pretty sure there's even some pics posted here on the Forum.... :dontknow: So it is
possible, but why would you bother! :shocked:
Doing this will remove the catalyst material & make the box itself marginally lighter, but seriously, it doesn't do much else!! Even if you entirely gut the box, it's still a heat trap that's been designed to create a hot spot in the exhaust just between your feet and unless you toss the box entirely (ie, install a cat eliminator) you will still have that hot spot.... possibly marginally less hot, but nonetheless, still HOT!! And to add injury to that insult, you'll still have MOST of the excess weight in the OE unit and the way the header pipes direct the gasses in & the tail pipe allows them out will still mean there's a fairly significant restriction in exhaust flow thru that box, so if that's what you are after, it gives you no reduction in back pressure nor does it change the exhaust noise much at all.... :lecturef_smilie:
Sooo, while cutting the bottom off the OE converter & gutting it will achieve the aim of removing the honeycomb & letting those emissions run free, it won't really do ANYTHING else much for you, in which case, why bother?? :dontknow: If you want to reduce the weight your Spyder carries, it barely does that.... If you want to change the exhaust note, it barely does that.... If you want to reduce the heat under there, it barely does that.... If you want to change the exhaust back pressure, it barely does that too.... :dontknow: AND it's not all that easy to do - so why not just fit a Cat Eliminator like everyone else??
If you object to the cost & you are capable of doing all the 'cut, gut, & re-weld' work on the OE Cat, you should be capable of making your own Cat Eliminator pipe fairly cheaply, but you'll probably need to cut the joins off the OE box & use them on your eliminator, they aren't something you'll be able to knock up in the average back shed. And if the thought of doing all that is too much, you could bite the bullet & buy one of the Cat Eliminators being sold commercially - yeah, they cost a bit, but for many, you DO get some benefits, even if it's just losing all thed useless weight in the OE Cat and significantly reducing the heat generated between your feet! :thumbup: Go on, you know you want to! Most of us who've done it have never looked back!
