’93 945T.

OK, I need a new cat. I received my new exhaust system from just behind the cat on back (IPD sport exhaust for ‘940 turbos) and today I removed the old system. But when I removed the exhaust pipe (the one between the cat and the resonator), I could see fine black material in the pipe coming out of the cat including flecks of metal… so I decided to replace the cat also (I'm pretty sure it's the stock cat). Speaking of which, taking out the old system was relatively painless except for removing the old bolts from the clamp on the pipe still remaining (just before the cat). I tried all sorts of tricks, spending literally about three hours to remove those three bolts, but I finally got them.

On to my question… is there a real difference between cats? I’m not talking about their efficiency in cleaning up the exhaust (I’m not in an area that requires exhaust testing and I figure any new cat will meet a certain standard and will certainly be better than what I have), I’m talking about flow restriction. Are there low-flow Volvo cats?

The one I’m looking at is from fcpgroton, $129 plus $4 for the gasket, part #s DV-005 and 256-737. This cat is made by Davico. Is it good?

Swedishengineering has a cat for $125 (including clamp and gasket), but I don’t know what brand it is.

Ipd has one for $185, brand unknown. I’d rather go with fcpgroton or swedishengineering due to the price savings.

So, is the davico cat good, meaning good air flow? Does anybody know what brand swedishengineering is selling?

One more thing – I need to take the Volvo on a road trip this coming weekend so I’ll need to order the part on Monday morning at the latest.

By the way, ipd’s sport exhaust looks sharp though it’s still in the box. I’ve been taking pictures, once this project is done I’ll post a link to a photo album if anybody wants to see what it looks like.