Car Toys
+1y
not familiar w/this vehicle, but is this tube you speak of part of an A.I.R. system?? Do you have an A.I.R. pump on this vehicle?? If this is a tube for this system and it is getting hot in conjunction w/a lack of power, that would lead me to believe that the Catalytic converter is in fact the culpret of this concern. You say you removed it and it seemed fine?? How so?? Do you mean that the honeycomb has not come apart?? The cat can still be clogged and the honeycomb still be in tact. How hot is the exhaust getting prior to the cat?? Is your piping changing color?? Maybe turning red while running and looking white/powdery/ashy buildup when cooled off?? Won't really be powdery, but can look it. If so, then the exhaust definately has a restriction some where whether it be in the cat or in a resonator or in the muffler. Best bet would be to remove the exhaust starting at the rear one section at a time and try driving it up the road. See if you can isolate the restricted part by process of elimination. It's really hard to diagnose something w/o physically looking at it or even duplicating the concern in person, but I hope this helps some.