Quote:
Originally Posted by Ventmaster
A "few more horses" does not justify the removal of your catalytic converters. Modern vehicles are actually fed a richer mixture of fuel to improve Cat efficiency. The "restriction" has often been tuned to create the appropriate backpressure needed for the surprisingly large amount of torque our little 217 cubic inch engines provide, and the restriction is miniscule compaired to the original cats.
Its like saying the computer you're looking at right now is just like the ones used in 1974 (1st year of unleaded gas and the "cat").
Too often a little more noise is mistaken for power-and very often just the opposite is the case. I'd bet $100 bucks right now if you make no mods to a modern Camaro and just cut off the cats you'll do nothing but make noise, smell like raw gas, have a check engine light to look at, and LOSE power.
IMHO, of course...
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Hmmm.. free $100 bucks sound good lol. I agree with you on everything except for the losing power part. If aftermarket header on a stock car provide gain than removing the cats on a stock header and replacing with either high flow or straight pipes should do the same. The only way it would screw things up is if you don't install the up stream o2 after modifying but I don't know anyone who would be stupid enough to think they don't have to use the 1st o2's.
Also, all cars are different. Some cars gain 12-18hp when removing the cats and some cars like ours only gain about 5-7-9hp. The hp gain vs everything else affected by not having cats is definitely not worth it on our camaro, but I don't think there's anyone here that I know of within the V6 crowd that went with OBX catless headers for HP gains. For myself and I think for everybody else was the price point. If I have to ever buy headers again I would go with high flow cats unless I decide to stay on e85 in which case emission, pollution, or smell is not an issue at all
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