I went to a local midas shop the other day to get a price on installing my highflow cats on my 97 4.6. He quoted me $300 just for the piping and $10 for each O2 sensor bung. Basically making it $340 before tax. To me personally I thought this was a big high. Does this sound like a good deal to anyone?

 

So let me get this straight...He is charging you $340 to cut out some pipe, weld in some cats in their place and then screw in the O2 sensor????

If thats all he is doing it sounds like he is taking you for a ride. There is a shop here in Arlington that welded in 2 mufflers and put on a new h-pipe on my mustang for $100.

A diff shop here cut off my stock exhaust on my truck and put on a magnaflow SI/DO muffler w/ dumps right in front of back axle for $30

 

All he has to do is take an impact gun to the bolts holding the pipe to the manifolds and then cut off the old pipping/new pipping weld. Total length is probably less then 6' of pipe. It sounds real simple to most people, but he said it would take all day.

 

Takes all day my ***. I wouldn't talk to that *** clown anymore. Go down to a local exhaust shop like a hole in the wall place that looks run down, these are the places that do the best work and see how much to weld some new pipe and screw in some O2 sensors.

Also if you are going to spend the money for this I would only put on 2 highflow cats. and not 4.

You are cuting out about 3 ft of pipe that has the stock cats on each side and welding in some pipe back in its place w/ only 1 cat.

Someone please tell me if i am thinking about this all wrong. I am planning on doing something like this to mine. I will go to the shop on wed morning and see how much the guy will charge.

 

I know about putting only 2 cats. I have them already. I know exactly what I want but nobody wants to do it. Its pathetic.

 

Here is what I am envisioning on my truck.....
There are 2 cats on each side just below the exhaust manifolds.
I want to cut out all the cats and weld in 1 cat on each side. then put an x-pipe on w/ 2 spintech mufflers and have it dump right infront of the back axle.

I will go by the exhaust shop that did my mustang and see how much to take off the 4 cats and put 2 in their place.

 

Make sure they think you are providing the converters. Otherwise, find a new shop.

 

I told him I already had the cats it still didn't matter.

 

Oh man, I had the same problem in my area too, no one wanted to touch my truck. Everyone was saying what a job it would be. And you know what, they were right, it was a job and a half. Yea when you look at it it looks like the high flows will weld right up, at least thats what I thought. So when no one said they would do it, I figured I'd do it myself. I cut all 4 cats off, ran a piece of stainless steel flex pipe off of each manifold then put the high flow up, you should have seen the angle that cat was sitting at. It was pressed all the way up to the frame, there was no way I could get a pipe in there to weld to it. So I said screw the cats, ran just the flex pipe, got a set of MIL eliminators, and ran dual Dynomax Bulletts off a Y pipe dummped under the bed. I now have the loudest truck in my area. I think $340 is a real good deal, I was getting quoted almost twice that, because of the fabricating. So when they say its an all day job, it really is.

 

I got quoted at around 300 dollars to put in hi flos then run true duals straight pipes (no mufflers) all the way out under the back bumper. I had to search around alot to find someone to do it though. I hope he keeps his word cause im about to order some off Ebay.

Question-- Should i buy 2 new O2 sensors for the install? How much are they from a store like Autozone? What will i do with the 2 sensors that will be deleted due to the loss of the 2 cats?

i hope the sound will improve alot with this change.

 

Its not that hard of a job for a pro. If you unbolt it all and cut where the new piping from my true duals is its not hard. All you have to do is bend the new pipe to the same bens as the stock cats and weld in the new cats and end piping.

 

Never made it to the shop today to see how much he would charge but i was thinking about the space issue. If it is going to be a problem see if bassani will sell just their cats b/c they are really short and small.
Just another thought

 

Yea Bassani's deffinately what I'd go with now if I had to, these Magnaflow cats are way too big. And all that bending and welding your talking about is called fabrication, and it usually doesnt come cheap, so if you can find it below $400, your looking pretty good. But remember, you get what you pay for.