Back in January, I went mudding. I have the Downey exhuast system for my 3.0, headers, pipes, etc. Anyways, I was using thier clamps which suck. Well, after bouncing around and getting my ride way too filthy, somewhere along the way the 2 pipes from the headers came out of the Y-Pipe. It got very loud. So, I drove back home loud as hell, washed the car, and took it to a shop to have them weld the 2 pipes into the Y-Pipe. I havn't welded much, and figured it would just be easier to let a really good exhaust shop do it.

Ever since then, the car just hasn't been the same and getting progressively worse. After going over all the engine and ecu and not finding a problem, the exhaust starts rattling like a can of marbles. I put up with this for a week and could take no more, soo....I drop the exuast from the Y-Pipe back and what do I find when I tip the exhuast down? ROCKS!!!!! :pat: 2 walnut sized rocks bouncing in my cat. This was not good. The next find was that when I seperated the exuast mudding, a ton of mud went in with the rocks.

You couldn't even see the holes on the front o2 sensor, and because the cat was clogged, the pressure eventually popped the Cats' guts loose. I just couldn't figure out why the engine would bog down at speeds below 45 mph. When the engine would finally hit 3800 rpms, the pressure I would assume would displace the blocked cat and flow "better."

Anyways, a days worth of cutting and welding, 1 new hi perf cat, some new 2.5 in pipe, and I have a custom tucked exhaust. Check it.
Pics are at.

http://community.webshots.com/user/darkronin619

Check the New Exhaust album.

 

that really sucks but at least you figured out what was wrong with it and fixed it before something worse happened. hey and now you have a hi perf cat too