Thread: DEC Catalytic Converter - do not buy

I've said it myself a hundred times: you get what you pay for. I'll definitely be taking some pictures of this. DO NOT BUY THESE. It's a stock cat replacement. I originally wanted to get a Catco converter. I called Catco's distributor, AllOEM in SoCal to purchase one. I gave them the part number. They persuaded me to then buy a DEC, for three reasons: it was cheaper, by $100!! and apparently Catco is a biotch to deal with on warranty issues. Apparently DEC is much better. Well, I may be finding out just how much better soon. Three, DEC is in LA and would ship free overnight. Excellent.

The converter came with one gasket in the box. It obviously needs two. GREAT quality control guys.

The flange that the collar clamps down on was NOT flat. i figured, well maybe the collar is supposed to flatten it out...NO. Now I have an exhaust leak. For the sake of saving time, I'm probably just going to flatten it out in my shop and deal with it before i take it to the smog shop.

WORD TO THE WISE: avoid these.

UPDATE:

So I did indeed pull the cat and straighten it out. Thankfully they use a softer stainless steel on these than I'm used to working with, and it was easy enough to bend into place. Still took a while, though. I threw it on our belt sander and made it nice and flat when I was done, but then had to use the old gaskets. The new gasket had no metal ring around the middle, and had just burned up. Thankfully they still worked, and I don't have a leak anymore.

Regardless of the workmanship on the outside, it passed emissions.

So if you're willing to put some time into fixing shoddy manufacturing and want a cheap stock cat that will pass emissions, go ahead and get one. Just know ahead of time that you're not getting top of the line...or even middle of the line...well, it might not even be on the line, come to think of it...it was pretty unimpressive...;)

Hell if it passed.. It did its job.

damn skippy.