Greetings all! I have an '03 SVT vin 5 with the ubiquitous squashed o2 sensors issue. The cat has been shifted a touch up and rearward and I cannot remove the o2 sensors without taking the cat off. Even if I could get the bent o2 sensors out, there doesn't look to be room for the new straight units anyway. [
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One solution I saw in my searching online was to weld new bungs on the sides of the cat. I took the car to my local mechanic where they said they can do it but at a $100/hr fabrication labor rate and couldn't get me an estimate on how many hours it would take. I pushed them for a ballpark figure to no avail. I'm not interested in paying an undetermined amount when I can perhaps buy a new cat for about the same or less.
I'm regularly do work on my own car but do not have welding experience, sadly. A saw a Magnaflow replacement online but the bungs in the photo look to be in the same location as the factory one.
Some cat replacements look a bit more round than the factory unit and I'm concerned that a new unit may not fit under the oil pan as there is little to no clearance currently... the header being a little bent. Perhaps a new header is all that is necessary to restore enough clearance to remove and replace the sensors in the current location. I would just have to be super careful in the future not to bottom out and have to do it all over again. Perhaps I should try to bend some of the exhaust parts back into position.
One suggestion was replacing the cat with an Off Road Pipe but... what does one do with that when it comes time for emissions?
I've also read about getting a tune... or "Tom's Tune" that would delete one of the sensors entirely. I'm not entirely sure what this means. Is this a chip? Deleting one o2 sensor would not fix the issue with the other o2 sensor but this may figure into the equation somehow.
If I can get a performance increase I might be willing to spend a bit more.
Thanks much for your assistance!
]One solution I saw in my searching online was to weld new bungs on the sides of the cat. I took the car to my local mechanic where they said they can do it but at a $100/hr fabrication labor rate and couldn't get me an estimate on how many hours it would take. I pushed them for a ballpark figure to no avail. I'm not interested in paying an undetermined amount when I can perhaps buy a new cat for about the same or less.
I'm regularly do work on my own car but do not have welding experience, sadly. A saw a Magnaflow replacement online but the bungs in the photo look to be in the same location as the factory one.
Some cat replacements look a bit more round than the factory unit and I'm concerned that a new unit may not fit under the oil pan as there is little to no clearance currently... the header being a little bent. Perhaps a new header is all that is necessary to restore enough clearance to remove and replace the sensors in the current location. I would just have to be super careful in the future not to bottom out and have to do it all over again. Perhaps I should try to bend some of the exhaust parts back into position.
One suggestion was replacing the cat with an Off Road Pipe but... what does one do with that when it comes time for emissions?
I've also read about getting a tune... or "Tom's Tune" that would delete one of the sensors entirely. I'm not entirely sure what this means. Is this a chip? Deleting one o2 sensor would not fix the issue with the other o2 sensor but this may figure into the equation somehow.
If I can get a performance increase I might be willing to spend a bit more.
Thanks much for your assistance!
