Technical Cracked cat.

[Albert Alfvag]

Hello everyone.
I'm having some trouble with my 88 panda 4x4 ie. Cat.
This winter (long time ago I know) I noticed some exhaust smoke coming from under the hood (or from the grill rather). Didn't have time to look into it until now, but now it's time for the MOT so no choice at this point.
What I discovered was two things:
The catalytic converter (cc) has cracked all the way around right under where it attaches to the manifold.
I also seem to be missing the two right side bottom bolts on the manifold.
My questions are these:
Would it be possible to weld the cc back together again or will I need to buy a new one?
What kind of bolts attach the exhaust manifold to the topp?
I have no idea where the bolts have gone tbh. It's the one on the picture and the one to the right of it that's gone missing.

Cheers,
Albert

 

[Albert Alfvag]

Ok so just to clarify. What I'm really asking is weather the cracked part of the catalytic converter is stainless or normal steel,and if it can be welded with a regular MIG welder?

Cheers,
Albert

 

[Dragon Man]

stainless or mild steel, you can weld it with a standard mig welder i do it all the time at work just using normal 0.8mm non flux cored wire using co2 for gas. its a shame you are not local to me. if you got the cat off and bought it to me it would only take me 5 minutes to weld that.

anywhere that can weld, will be able to weld that with no problems what so ever. you do need to find out why it has cracked in that location though. maybe a support issue? theres usually a bracket bolted to the back of the engine on the pandas that do not have any cat. that bracket supports the exhaust and stops any flexing between the manifold and the exhaust where it starts to go right back under the car.

 

[Albert Alfvag]

Thank you!
Can I weld it with a regular argon mix shielding gas as well? That's all I have.
The welding itself is no problem at all since I'm used to welding sheet metal on the panda using my 0,8 wire.
I'll remove the entire assembly with the exhaust manifold as I need to replace the coolant pipe behind it,and the manifold gasket.
And the reason it has cracked is quite obvious. This (picture) is what remains of the little support you mentioned (thank you road salt), so I'll make a new one of those for sure.

Thanks again!

 

[Dragon Man]

it will weld fine. if its mild steel wire or rod, it will weld. any inert gas will do!

 

[Albert Alfvag]

it will weld fine. if its mild steel wire or rod, it will weld. any inert gas will do!

Thank you for the help. It welded nicely!

/Albert