Modifying my standard Mk 2 VTR manifold??? Does it work?

[Saxy_Me-chelle]

Hi there,

I was looking at my manifold this morning and i thought it looked possible to remove the cat from it and fabricate some sort of a fitment consisting of a straight through pipe with the square ends of the cat welded on to the pipe! This would act as a decat without having to change the manifold to a 4-2-1 ro similar! I don't want to splash out on some fancy manifold so trying to do this on a budget! all i would need is a spare standard mk 2 manifold and some pipe! i will do the welding myself so will save costs! it would also allow me to easily re-fit the cat for MOTs and then simply swap back to the custom decat afterwards! i'm not looking for performance increases, just to make my backbox louder! im also removing the middle silencer!

Just wondering if anyone has done this or anything similar before and whether it worked??

Cheers,

Mike

[VTR-120BHP]

iirc i think the standard manifold is cast ?? if this is the case it will be a right pain to weld.... i migth be wrong thou ?

[james_roxburgh123]

yea i recently looked into welding my standard mk2 cat as it snapped but it is cast. Therefore it needs to be white hot to weld and even then it is meant to be a right pain. You can get standard preformance cats for about £100?

[Saxy_Me-chelle]

thanks for the replies! That makes sense.......so welding cast iron isn't really an option then! what about if i used the ends of the cat as a template and then cut a sqaure of steel out (same dimensions as each end of the cat) and then drilled the holes in the correct place so that i could bolt it to the top section of the manfold in the same place that the cat does?? that might work! what do you think?

I really don't understand why a decat pipe for mk2 saxos hasn't been made by any companies yet! It can't be that hard to make! :)

[VTR-120BHP]

tbh mate imo it really isnt worth it. might aswell buy another maifold they aint that expensive and you would see gains from fitting it aswell, where as with you making one it could perform worse.....

[Saxy_Me-chelle]

i see your point mate but i want to be able to put the cat back on for MOTs which is a pain in the ass when you change the whole manifold! plus i will have to relocate the oil filter as the cheapest manifold is a raceland and they require it to be relocated from what i've read on here!
If my idea is possible it could be done for around £20 which is a bit cheaper than a new manfold!