Driving without one O2 sensor?
 

I know this sounds stupid, but...

I recently attempted to rid my car of the stock cats, and while the passenger side bolts came loose after some muscle, there was one bolt on the driver side that absolutely defeated me. I tried everything, and I'm talking everything. Impact wrench, huge breaker bar, PB blaster, ATF fluid, letting the car heat up to operating temp, and nothing. I eventually rounded the bolt slightly by accident, and at that point, I tried using the Grip Tite socket - I snapped the socket into pieces. :shakes head:

My only solution to remove the cat is to now drive my car to a shop, and have them attempt to remove the bolt, or simply just cut the damn cat out. My question is...would the car be able to drive with one open header? It sounds stupid, but if I can limp the car home, I would have no issues installing the HFC's I have. I'd prefer to not have the shop install my HFC's for me, since I'm completely competent in installing them myself, and don't want to get charged an arm and a leg.

Edit: Now that I think about it, this is an incredibly stupid idea. The exhaust gas will be shooting directly into places it shouldn't be. I'll just have a shop install them. :tup:

I had the same problem and I drove my Z to my friend's garage wich is about 10 min. Passenger side had a test pipe and the driver side with the stock cat. It was super loud!
I did not remove any sensors for the ride.

If it's not far and it can be gently driven, don't worry, just do it, be ready to clear codes afterwards.

I was going to suggest twist sockets as well, but i see you did and broke it!! I will say, for the future, get some Kroil, from a gun shop or from Kroil themselves, use the google sponsored link and you'll get a cracking deal on two cans.

Used it this weekend for undoing some crazy bolts, worked like nothing else, very worth it.

I talked to a local muffler shop, and they quoted me a price of $85 to remove the stock cat, and install one one cat. Problem is, I would have to leave it overnight, since they want the car to completely cool down. I feel like that's a somewhat reasonable price for what I'm asking - I'll be checking out one more muffler shop to see if they can just do it the same day or something. I told them that I don't care if you trash the stock cat - I just want it off.

Yeah, I tried everything MaDMaXX! I know about Kroil, but I figured that nearly an entire can of PB Blaster / Liquid Wrench would do the trick, and even with all my air tools and 1/2 drive sets, it was a no go. I was kinda hoping that at least the head of the bolt would snap off, so I could at least remove the cat that way, haha. That sucker is stuck!

Looking at the passenger side bolt I was able to extract, I could clearly see some threads completely sheared off, indicating that they had been cold welded to the threads in the cat. Pretty scary.

Sounds like a real nasty setup :(

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