Since the beginning of installing the high flow cat, I've been chasing down what sounded like a very persistent exhaust leak under acceleration. Connections were initially sealed with high temp ultra copper. This works fine for exhaust clamps and the cat-to-header connection, but never worked at the cat-to-exhaust connection. So for that area I applied tailpipe and muffler sealer (which is basically a liquid cement). No more leaks at all! Yet, that fluttering noise still persisted.
Having ruled out all of the exhaust connections, I decided to put the stock cat converter back on; no more fluttering noise. Huh. This may be unrelated, but after removing the Solo cat I found what appears to be damage to the center of the coil on the header side. Exhaust looks fine though. Pics:
Solo cat, header side:
Solo cat, exhaust side:
So, I have two questions:
1. Is the fluttering noise under acceleration normal for a Solo cat converter (or any high flow cat in general).
2. Is the damage to the center coil normal? If not, what could possibly have caused it?