October 22, 201114 yr Well, I've been trolling around trying to get "pre-owned" catalytic converters for Murphy, the $500 87 Turbo Wagon. The back one is empty (had the infamous cat marble blocking the exhaust) and the front one is starting to block too. If I get new cats, the pair w/ pipe here in CA will cost about $800 if I install them. The registration is due at the end of the month, and I was hoping to find a solution before time ran out. Time is almost out. I've been looking for donor cars, but these old EA82T's are so rare here... And then I had a thought! I could do the EA to EJ swap for probably less than the cost of the converters! Legacys are much more common around here, and if I can find a donor car, I'd be able to do this swap for the same price or less than the cost of the cats! Murph is still in very good condition, and I would hate to scrap her.
October 22, 201114 yr The car is old enough that they just put a sniffer in the pipe for emissions and a walk around noise check, right? Seems like it should be easy enough for a reputable exhaust shop to just put a generic in line cat in to pass emissions. Even if you drop an EJ in, you'd still have cat issues and need to pass emissions... Plus (even though I haven't done it yet, I still understand the depth) it's not like you just drop the EJ in and go. NOT to discourage you, but if money is the issue, you won't be saving yourself any by doing the EJ swap.
October 22, 201114 yr Author Unfortunately, installing new cats here in California is much more expensive than it is in almost any other state in the union.
October 22, 201114 yr I guess what I was getting at is if you're simply trying to install a cat to pass DEQ, a shop might be able to scab something on, generic and non proprietary, just to get you by. I know on an alltrac I was working on with a friend, he had flanges welded to the exhaust, and could swap in a cat to go pass DEQ, then swapped back to a straight pipe. Cost him all of $200 at a shop.
October 23, 201114 yr "Cost him all of $200 at a shop." I told the op where to buy Genuine Subaru new for cheap. Throw a generic passing second cat on it and call it good. What am I missing? Doug
October 23, 201114 yr ...can you get her out of state and get the work done? I'm so glad I don't live in California; beautiful place to visit, but the state gov't there is so Draconian.
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