My car is sitting on jacks right now, Im trying to get the bolts off the cat converter, but they are rusted on. Any suggestions as to what can be done without cutting them off and hopefully saving them?

 

Try Kroil, it worked well on my stuff that PB blaster(prolly the next best IMO) couldnt get loose. Otherwise your opinion is heating it.

Make sure u use the right sized socket, it may seem right but then round the bolt off because of the rust on there. Get the socket u need and hammer it on there if u need to.

 

I cut my bolts w/ a dremmel. Those things were a biatch.

 

I just tried cutting them off with a hack saw. F that. Im gonna go try some sh** from pepboys now to kill the rust.

 

Soak the nuts with penetrating oil, then use 6-point socket with a impact gun.

 

+1 on cutting them off.. mine were just little studs of rust so i used a sawzall on it

 

Liquid wrench has worked well for me. There are probably tons of caustic chemicals that will work wonders.

 

+1 on the Kroil...It takes a while though...soak the bastads and then count to 2,000 mississippi.

 

I had to cut mine too, unfortunatly.

 

Well after half a can of pepboys finest rust remover 2 hours of banging and waiting. All the bolts are now stripped. And Im done with it today. Im gonna have to find someone with a torch now. So I might as well wait until my muffler comes in and get it all done at once. Custom pipes and have the guy cut the bolts off on the cat and put the new one on. What a biotch

 

Yeah, I had to cut the bolts off my cat on our CRV and it was very easy with an angle grinder. You can get a 4" grinder for about $40 then get some safety goggles, earplugs, and a cutoff wheel (if it doesn't come with any) and you'll probably still have $$$ leftover from the mechanic and you'll have a grinder.

 

i use an angle grinder takes very little time to knock off the nuts and studs, but then again i usually replace the cat at the same time!

 

Hehehe.... angle grinder it is thanks

 

vise grip and a pipe shoved onto the vise grip
since the bolts are rounded anyways
worked easily for me

 

Vice grips and hammer, last resort. Damn rust looks like its been building up since the car was manufactured in 92. Lol

Angle grinder 34 bucks at sears with a 2 year warrntey.

 

personally i would use stripped bolt extractors. It looks like a socket but when u turn it, it bites into the nut. Ive used it on many thing and highly recommend them.

 

I always find it easier to have the whole exhuast system off before attempting to unbolt the cat. Dont know how easy it is for you 4th gen guys but the 5th gen has a triangulated bolt pattern with a top bolt/nut at the top making it nearly impossible to find good leverage. I just unbolt the whole "S" piping.

 

I would of loved nothing better than to do all the work myself. But unfornatly I do not have access to a torch. I can get the whole exhaust system off with this angle ginder I got now, but getting he muffler on and having custom pipes done, I might as well just have the guy do the work from the cat converter back.

 

Can you drop the entire exhaust off? What I did was disconnect the entire assembly (cat, b-pipe, muffler) and then used a $10 cutting wheel and cut off the studs off the cat.

Unfortunately if you go this route, you will have to either hammer or press out the remaining stud bits off of the cat exhaust flange, which is a bitch to do. Then you got to get new studs, or use bolts and nuts to reconnect the cat to the exhaust once you got your new exhaust on.

Now that I think about it, if you got the whole assembly off a better route to go might be to use a dremmel and do some precision cutting of just the nut, and save the studs.

 

Studs arent a problem. The came with the new Cat

 

What size studs for the 5th gen, is it the 10-1.25? and how do you knock them out of the cat, just a hammer?

 

what I always do is just put socket on the bolt, and push the rachet with my foot. If that doesn't work, get a piece of pipe for leverage and slide it over the rachet handle

 

Impact gun, a few extensions,an impact grade swivel, and 2 cans of PB did it for me.

 

Da torch!

Mine were so bad that I had to torch em off at school

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Acidcrakker &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">angle grinder</TD></TR></TABLE>