Driving with no exhaust?

[IllustratedXJ]

Will a short drive (about 4 miles or so) with no exhaust damage the engine? By "no exhaust" I mean the exhaust pipes ends about 2 feet from the engine. Everything I can find online says no, but I thought I double check with some of the folks here before trusting random online sources.

The short story is, my girlfriend went out to get some gas and prep her 4Runner for a bicycle race tomorrow and when she started up vehicle it was *really* loud. When we looked underneath, we saw some scum bag had come along and cut out about a two foot section of the exhaust pipe between the engine and the cat. And it's obviously been cut, the edges are clean and the rubber pipe hanger has been neat sliced off as well. Needless to say, we're pretty pissed and did file a police report but there's not a lot they can do since she didn't see anything and neither did the neighbors. :fuse:

Anywho, at least it should be easy to fix (just need to replace the section of pipe) and there's a great muffler shop nearby (Classic Muffler Service on Winfield). So we'll try and get it over there on Monday but have been debating between driving it over or towing it.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks.

--mike

 

[mflueras]

should not hurt anything.

 

[Alex E]

Drive in, wont hurt a thing. I had customers come in about once a month in the Santa Clara area with stolen CATs.

 

[IllustratedXJ]

Thanks guys. Actually I was wrong (and thus expose my serious lack of exhausty knowledge), it wasn't a section of pipe between the engine and the cat but the cat itself that was stolen. Apparently there's been a rash of that lately. Sigh.

 

[kastein]

As long as you ensure the exhaust isn't aimed at anything flammable/meltable you are good :thumbup:

catalytic thieves

 

[crazymoose1990]

Yeah there is some valuable metal it there but for the life of me I cannot remeber which one. I think it may actually be platinum

 

[kastein]

platinum, rhodium, and I think in some cases iridium.

The retards who steal them generally are either (a) crackheads who think they can get money for them or (b) crooks who sell them under the counter to shady shops.