UK guys, decatting a 3 cylinder 1.4TDI Polo

Friggerpants · April 2nd, 2012, 11:00

Please note, Cat's ARE NOT a legal requirment in the UK, as long as a car can pass the smoke test @ MOT, which all diesel cars I've owned, can.

For this reason, in the UK, where I LIVE, a Decat is NOT ILLEGAL providing car's pass their test.

(There is speculation that >07 cars with DPF's will fail the MOT now, but no hard evidence supports this, and car in question is 06).

Anyways, onto the main topic......

I've purchsed a VW Polo 9N3 1.4tdi as a daily runner. It's already got a remap on it, and it was orignally 70bhp, now circa 100bhp.

I've deccatted all my cars up to date, and thus plan on doing it with this car.

My questions are:

. Can I literally pull the existing Cat off, bang out the innards and replace?
. Is it an easy job to get Cat off?
. If I can't bang the innards out, is it possible to buy a decat pipe?

devonutopia · April 2nd, 2012, 11:04

. Can I literally pull the existing Cat off, bang out the innards and replace? YES
. Is it an easy job to get Cat off? POTENTIALLY NOT. (Angle grinder

)
. If I can't bang the innards out, is it possible to buy a decat pipe? YES

Friggerpants · April 2nd, 2012, 11:07

Hey Jason, have you ever had any experience with Decatting a 3 cylinder?

Providing the studs are not bad, is it a easy job to rip off? Thanks :-)

Seatman · April 2nd, 2012, 11:21

You best check about the new poxy mot laws though, i was talking to my main man and he was saying if it came with a cat it has to have one but I'm not sure when or what age of carf that starts from. I went with the banging the insides out of mine.
The studs tend to be ok but soak them before hand, you might also want to get a set of irwin bolt removers too as they're quite often in the position of having had sex

Friggerpants · April 2nd, 2012, 14:43

Is the actual Cat itself like a brick/polystyrene like substance?

Easy to knock out with a hammer and chisel? Or easier to cut it up, empty and weld back up?

Thanks so far.

Seatman · April 2nd, 2012, 16:17

Yeh it's like honeycomb plastery type stuff, I just knocked mine out with a hammer and crow bar and tipped it out a bit at a time, there's also a cloth type bit round the outside of that lot too so get it out as well so it doesn't go and plug the exhaust.