Stripped catalytic converter bolts
 

I'm attempting to take out my clogged cat and I cannot get the bolts off, all three are seized and won't budge and I've also stripped them. So now do I have to cut those off? If so what's the best method for doing that? I have a sawsall and also a dremel type of rotary cutter. Could I cut the head of the bolt off and then tap it through? Also what bolt should I use in that spot? Is there a type of locking bolt I need to have there?

I came accross the same problem before I had my reman installed, how my shop did it... I do not know. But the result was the three bolts are off and they replaced it with ones that are loose they purchased from Home Depot. I assume they tapped out the stripped bolts and I remember when I removed mine, that the bolt at the six-o-clock position came loose but the other two above I thought were seized to the cat-converter. I am pretty sure once you have the cat off, you could probably hammer the bolts out or with a 1/2 inch drive breaker bar, you can break loose the bolts.

Those bolts are splined if I know which ones you're talking about. I took a dremel to mine and then hammered them through. Replace them with some non splined, should be fine.

^^^ this

You'll feel really stupid here shortly. Tap them out. This bit me too until I found a post here explaining it.

Well I will say this, it is extremely hard to get these bolts out. I cut the head of one bolt off last night and then tried to hammer it out. Yeah right! It will not budge! And I was hammering on it with a mini sledge hammer and still no luck. I am really not looking forward to doing the other two. If this doesn't work I'm going to try and cut part of the triangle piece off around where the by itself is.

Is there anywhere you can buy a kit that contains the necessary nuts, bolts and gaskets for a cat install? I find it strange that there doesn't seem to be one.

Not that I know of. You can get all the stuff separately from most auto parts stores.

use a long, strong vice grip that can fit (quality is the key here),

clip it, and thor-style the vice grip (find the biggest hammer u can handle)

comes right off, works everytime, even when the bolt was completely stripped, you HAVE TO use a quality vice grip, cheap ones will just pop and might hit you in the face (oh don't ask)

but if u stripped the threads ... well time to get that grinder out and grind the shit outa it.