Ok... So my tags are up at the end of the month for my 1990 5.0 LX and I don't have cats, I live in DE and I failed the emissions test. The cheapest I could find to get em put on was 500 bucks, which to some of you may seem cheap, but i'm broke and have a ton of bills so to me its a fortune right now. But... as I was going for a walk through the neighborhood I spotted something shiny that someone put out for the trash and it turned out to be a complete stock exhaust system from a 99-04 mustang, so I picked that up and I'm wondering if there is any way I could use it... if you need pics to see how it's configured let me know. the person who owned the car before me put straight pipes on it with no cats of course and ****ty mufflers, what were they thinking?!?!
Heres a trick many guys do and it works. look for another county outside yours that does not have emissions testing and get a PO box or mail box there at the post office and register the car to that PO box or mail box. Usually the smaller counties have no emmisions testing and you get in under the wire. Just take a ride to pick up the plate and regerstration.
there's only 3 counties in DE and all of em have STRICT emissions standards, also now that they've looked under the car they know i have no cats and made a record of it so when I go to get re-tested that's the first thing they'll check for, there's no way I can get out of not having them, it's supposedly illegal in any state not to have them tho
It is illegal to remove ANY emissions device, but that is never enforced.
I found Magnaflow cats on Summit for about $100 each. It shouldn't cost more than $50 or so to have them welded into the stock pipes...
Before you order the cats, call around for a shop to install them.
Some shops will not install parts that the customer brings in, as the shop can't control the quality of what you buy. Also, there is a possibility that the customer would buy the wrong parts...
Anyway, that is how I got my n/a 2.3 to pass a few months back.
I actually work at pepboys and we can order cats for about 70 bucks, the problem is that no one will install them... so thats why the cheapest price i could find was 500 bucks cuz thats parts AND labor. none of the mechanics recommended having someone whos not a professional do it, like a person who does it on the side, but I figured if I found these cats for free i would attempt to make it work
They were free..., if it were me, I'd break out the welder and MAKE them work. A little cut here, and a little splice there, weld it up, I've got no doubt you can make them work. Even if you don't have a welder, you can get couplers and clamps (not my favorite solution, but it works) from an auto parts store.
Free vs. $500 is a great motivator also...and atleast you'll have cats and better sounding mufflers than the ****ty variety.
i got really lucky, i think these people were moving or something i cant believe they just threw out a whole exhaust system! it's in great shape, no rust at all!! i am def. thinking i need to find a way to make this work...
They were free..., if it were me, I'd break out the welder and MAKE them work. A little cut here, and a little splice there, weld it up, I've got no doubt you can make them work. Even if you don't have a welder, you can get couplers and clamps (not my favorite solution, but it works) from an auto parts store.
Free vs. $500 is a great motivator also...and atleast you'll have cats and better sounding mufflers than the ****ty variety.
You should have too awful much modification to do putting a 94 H-Pipe onto a Fox. Any half decent muffler shop should be able to get it done rather cheaply.
A CatCo high-flow cat'ed H-pipe goes for about $299 through Summit and/or Jeg's, and it's 50-state legal. With shipping, it might be around $350, which is still $150 cheaper than paying some shop to hack-job your H-pipe.
You'll need a set of ramps, a 5/8" deep socket, a 9/16" socket, a Crescent wrench (or any adequate wrench for a backup on the flange bolts), some PB Blaster, a screwdriver (to loosen the smog pump hose clamp from the tube), and about two to three hours of free time.
You can doooo eeeeet!
EDIT: Or, on second thought, just scour the local eBay and Craigslist ads for a used stock H-pipe, and just swap 'em. I've seen them go for around $50 to $75 on average, here.