4th of July weekend was highly productive.
Friday was a BBQ, Sunday was another BBQ, but Saturday was wide open. Sunny with a high of 82, it was the perfect day to be outside. I decided to install the Solo high flow catalytic converters on Saturday.
If I had to describe this install in one word, it would be "annoying." It is extremely straightforward: unplug four harnesses, undo four bolts, loosen two clamps, remove two midpipes, swap the four oxygen sensors into the new midpipes, replace the midpipes, tighten two clamps, install four new bolts and plug in four sensor harnesses.
Great. Done. In and out, right?
Well, no, because some of the clearances are a royal pain. There are few things in life more frustrating than having a clear line of sight to a bolt but having no straight path to get to it!
Let me first say this installation would've been impossible without a 24" breaker bar, a 24" extension, an oxygen sensor socket and a can of PB blaster.
If you do not have these tools, do not even bother with the installation until you get them! With the tools, it isn't difficult at all. You just have to be patient with the clearances and accept it's going to take a few hours. I have the following tips:
1.) Make sure you get your car up to operating temperature first or you will not be able to break loose the O2 sensors. Drive the car until up to operating temperature, jack it up/put it on ramps/toss it on a lift, spray the rear O2 sensors ONLY at the threads (NOT THE BODIES) with PB blaster, let it soak 5 minutes and break them 1/4 turn with a breaker bar and an oxygen sensor socket. Do not keep turning, only break them loose or you can twist the wires up and snap them.
2.) Allow the car to cool down until the cats are cool to the touch (60-90 minutes). From there, unscrew the rear oxygen sensors with your bare hands.
3.) Make sure all oxygen sensors are unplugged at the harness and the harnesses are hanging from the bottom of the car before you drop the midpipes. Do not try and break the front oxygen sensors loose until you drop the midpipes. Remove the rear O2's completely before dropping the midpipes but leave the front O2's screwed into the midpipes with the harnesses disconnected.
4.) Make sure you swap the oxygen sensors over from the old midpipes to the new midpipes BEFORE bolting them up. Otherwise, it'll be near impossible to install them.
I made sure to put anti-seize on the threads of the oxygen sensor threads AND the rear oxygen sensor extensions. I tightened everything pretty firm, taking care not to crush the fragile oxygen sensor bodies.
As you can see, the Solo high flow cats barely resemble the massive stock assemblies.
The entire install, including the warming up of the car and the cooling of the exhaust took about 4 hours. And believe me when I say I'm not a mechanic. This was done on jackstands on a concrete driveway apron lying on an old throw rug.
Let me just say the change in the exhaust from these cats is HUGE. The stock catalytic converters act as better mufflers than the actual mufflers on these cars. My car has the NPP exhaust option, which previously I would describe as "lame" at best. The car is at least three times louder now, and the tone is completely different. It sounds like a whole new car. My previous vehicle was a 2001 Firebird Formula with QTP headers and a dumped cutout, so I drove around in "loud as balls" mode 100% of the time. While this car is not as loud as my old Firebird, I'm stunned at the volume increase that a simple catalytic converter swap made on a stock manifolds car. I cannot say enough good things about how much better the car sounds. You can actually hear the stock cam chopping at idle now.
The car also feels completely different. It doesn't feel like it's struggling to breathe anymore. Comparatively, the car was falling flat on its face before with the stock cats in place. It feels as if a massive restriction was lifted. I was wholly unimpressed with the power the CAI intake made, but this mod was actually noticeable. I'm very pleased on the sound and performance gains of this little mod.
Now for the bad.
I made it a whopping 176 miles before the passenger side cat threw a code, and 194 miles before the driver's side cat threw a code. I cleared the first code and they were both back within 20 miles.
This is frustrating to say the least since the ONLY reason to purchase this product is to prevent a check engine light and eliminate the need for a tune to keep your warranty. If you're going to void your warranty and you don't live in Kommiefornia, you'd be insane to not buy longtubes. Rather than jump the gun, I will give everything a nice tightening up to make sure the first few heat cycles didn't back out my sensors or O2 extensions. However, I will not have access to a garage and a floor jack/jackstands for 2-3 weeks. From there, I'll be willing to do as much as the "spark plug anti-fouler" mod. If I have to do anything past that, I'll be pretty irritated.
From what I've seen, the 2010-2012 Camaro's do great with the Solo HFC's and the 2013-2014's seem to be a crapshoot due to some change with the tune creating a greater vulnerability of the rear O2 codes. This is confirming my fears, but I'll reserve judgment until I can make a few final adjustments.
I am in the process of putting together a video of the before/after of the Solo HFC install. I could not find a before/after video ANYWHERE showing stock cats+NPP vs Solo HFC's+NPP, so this should be extremely informative. The videos turned out great, I just need to do some amateur editing. More to follow later.