1992 Rear Catalytic Converter

[MoreIBNR]

I just received my parts from subaruparts.com and am surprised by something. I ordered the cat, the bolts/springs/nuts and the "donut" gaskets. I received all that along with a couple of additional items - an additional gasket for the front of the cat which is flat and covers both the openings and 4 shorter bolts and nuts. Also the flange on the front of the cat does not appear able to receive the two donut gaskets. The flange is a flat piece of steel about 1/4 inch thick or more. Is this an updated design where the cat is fastened to the front pipes rigidly without springs with the (relatively) thin gasket?

[svxfiles]

Pictures and measuremnts would help.
With the price of new cats it's probably been a while since someone ordered one.














If anyone NEEDS a new facrory two into one cat, I have one for $100.00 plus shipping.
It still has the stickers on it.

[Hondasucks]

I ordered the rear gasket for mine from work, and with the ball joint I also ordered, I got one of the small FRONT gaskets so I had to super glue my old donut gasket back together, although it seems to be holding up :-)

[MoreIBNR]

OK - Here is where I am at. Subaru has discontinued the rear cat that takes the donuts in the front (though it still takes the donut in the rear). Instead, the cat has a thick, flat plate in the front that mates with the front pipes with a thin, flat gasket. I guess this works if the cat and front pipes are new, but my front pipes are 15 years old and since the way they have been mounted to the front pipes has left the flange open to the elements, it is no longer flat and does not mate will with the cat (where the heck were Subaru's brains when they changed the design?). New front pipes are $825 from subaruparts.com and I really don't want to spend that much when there really should be an easier, less expensive solution.

What I am toying with is using the donut gaskets with longer boltsand springs (the stock bolts are too short for this configuration). I was going to use higher strength bolts and hope I can put enough torque on them to get it good and tight and (hopefully) sealed. I am also thinking of not using the springs and tightening it all up real good.

Has anyone else "been here, done that"? Any other input/suggestions?

Right now I am really pissed that Subaru revised the design in a way that requires an extra expense of close to 4 figures to use!

[It's Just Eric]

That's exactly what Mike621 did to his. It isnt exactly pretty, but it works

[MoreIBNR]

Originally Posted by It's Just Eric

That's exactly what Mike621 did to his. It isnt exactly pretty, but it works

Did he use the springs or not?

Gary

[MoreIBNR]

I just want to let everyone know how this turned out.

I ended up needing to replace the front pipes but didn't want to pay almost $1000 from subaruparts.com. I found a set in California. The pictures showed the flanges and the pipe extensions to be sound, so I bought them.

However, I first had to remove the front pipes. The studs and the nuts holding them to the exhaust manifold were rusted and frozen. I tried soaking in PB Blaster for 2 days, I tried heat, I tried using my damaged bolt extractors with my impact driver. Nothing worked. I ended up snapping them off and then spending a day trying more methods of extracting them. Then 2 more days drilling them out and tapping to a slightly larger SAE size (7/16) and used stainless bolts (I couldn't find stainless studs).

I was still left with one of the original questions of how to get the pipes to mate with the new style catalytic converter which mates with the front pipes rigidly (thin gasket and nuts and bolts - no springs, no donuts). When I tried it with the original pipes, there was about an inch or so gap that I couldn't close.

Then I had an epiphany. The rear part of the exhaust system is attached with 5 rubber hangers from the floor of the car - two just behind the rear cat (which are replaced with new ones when you replace the old style cat with the new style - the new hangers are slightly larger), two at the rear of the muffler and one in the middle. I went to the rear ones and freed them up on the hangers and pushed them as far forward as I could using a pry bar. I then went to the middle one and pried it off as far as I could and smeared it with silicone grease and pushed it back into place. After doing this, the gap between the front pipes and the cat vanished and everything went together fine.

Went to inspection to be reinspected. HC came back at 19, down from either 376 or 476 (I don't remember which). Passing is 100. So, I am back in business.

[YourConfused]

Pics would have been nice here for the others, but good to hear that you fix't it up.

[MoreIBNR]

Originally Posted by YourConfused

Pics would have been nice here for the others, but good to hear that you fix't it up.

Yeah, maybe, but I have described it in detail fine enough that anyone should be able to follow it if they want.

Or is it that you just like to look at pictures?

Believe me, after working on this project for as long as I did, the last thing I was thinking about was pictures.

If anyone is undertaking this project and needs more detail, drop me a line with what you need or what isn't clear and I will do what I can to clear it up.

[Mike621]

I encountered the same series of problems with the gap when mounting the replacement exhaust on my car which came from a 1997 donor. Glad to hear you worked it out. I used longer bolts and the donuts with much success . It will hold very well, and Ill address it sometime down the road with an aftermarket exhaust, but I have other things that I want to deal with first.

[MoreIBNR]

Originally Posted by Mike621

I encountered the same series of problems with the gap when mounting the replacement exhaust on my car which came from a 1997 donor. Glad to hear you worked it out. I used longer bolts and the donuts with much success . It will hold very well, and Ill address it sometime down the road with an aftermarket exhaust, but I have other things that I want to deal with first.

I had tried that originally with the original front pipes. I tried making the openings in the cat larger to accept the donuts, but it didn't work - I don't know if it was because of the condition of the pipes or the donuts not sealing with the cat. When I gat the "new" pipes, I went back to the thin gasket. I was afraid the work I had done to the cat would be a problem, but it wasn't.

Did you try freeing up the rubber hangers, especially pushing the ones on the muffler forward? All I can say is that it worked for me.

[Mike621]

Well, if I start to get a leak again, Ill look into it again. At this point, I'm not worried because its tight for now