Two little holes in Catalytic converter

[Mark Denovich <mark@domain.elided>]

Working my way down the Milano Verde to-do list, I was under the car 
this morning working on the exhaust.   I tracked down a crack where the 
two down pipes meet...   An ugly but servicable MIG weld later and the 
crack was sealed.   I decided to check for more leaks...

I started the car (it fired up immediately like always), and had my wife 
put a gloved hand over the exhaust.   I quickly felt exhaust leaking 
from that damned cat/center muffler joint.   But I also felt exhaust 
escaping from two 1/8" holes in the shell of the catalytic converter.

I figured the holes were due to rust (it was a very rusty Milano) and 
MIGed them shut too.

The next time I started the car, it took quite a bit longer to fire. 
Normally it starts almost immediately, hardly cranks at all.   This time 
it took a good second, maybe two.  Not overly long, but definatly 
longer.  I shut it off and tried a few more times with the same results.

Now my question is:  Were those two holes there by design?  Is it a 
little harder starting now that I've sealed up all the holes in the 
exhaust?

I'm tempted to undo my welding of those two holes just to complete the 
experiment, but thought I'd ask the digest first, before I bother.

	--Mark

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