Review on 🚗 Walker Exhaust Ultra EPA 16220: The Ultimate Direct Fit Catalytic Converter by Richard Kuntz

My unit had serious quality control issues.1. Bent pins. Unlike the Mazda OEM converter, this block has pressed-in studs instead of threaded holes. It's ok, you slide it into the manifold and bolt the studs to the manifold with nuts instead of putting bolts through the manifold and into the converter from the top. BUT: One of the five pressed-in bolts was bent about 15 degrees from the vertical. Sometimes the bolt won't push all the way in and you can pull it out again by tightening the nut at the base. But no, it was really bent. I had to fix it myself - I had to buy a $50 propylene torch at the hardware store, screw three nuts onto the end of the bent stud to protect the threads, a long sleeve onto those on the long 3/ . 8" extension and used the extension as leverage to move the bent bolt while the base of the bolt was heated to over 3000 degrees F with a torch. 2. The bolt hole in the flange was partially welded. These units come with a long steel rod supplied, to be welded so that the O2 sensor wire does not touch the hot converter, it is to be welded to the bottom of the converter housing in the area of the neck with an air gap of about 1.5-2.0 cm above it Three screw holes on the flange which you can put your own thru-bolt nuts in. Instead, an inattentive worker at the Walker factory welded it to the base of the flange, which did three specific things: runs up into the flange hole.b.prevents nuts from being installed.b past the flange hole.c Makes it impossible to install the wrench flush with this nut later when you need to tighten the bolt - the steel st ange hinders any attempt to move the wrench to the desired side. I had to go to the hardware store and get a $50 angle grinder, figure out how to use it, and get to work with the steel bar and welding to carve out the space behind the flange for the bolt and its nut. So poor quality control at the factory became a relatively easy task for the entire project. Granted, Mazda wants around $750+ for their factory OEM converter, so I'm still ahead, but geez, I would really appreciate better quality control at the Walker factory. You know?