Check your cats... - Page 9 - Camaro5 Chevy Camaro Forum / Camaro ZL1, SS and V6 Forums

L99CAMA2011 · 11-25-2011, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InvaderMoose

So, if i gut out my cats, how much louder will the exhaust be? REALLY dont want to change my sound at all..

To hell with sound, think about the smell.

JDP Tech · 11-25-2011, 05:57 PM

The sound will change considerably. It will be a decent amount louder, and be a lot more raspy.
I'm not a fan of how a no-cat setup sounds, at all.

But to each, his own.

Big Daddy Kane · 11-25-2011, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by S-eatin-grin

What kinda bit are you using? And how much of the mesh do you have to remove?

I'm just using a regular drill bit, but it's very long. These cats for me, have been a pain in the ass to gut. But I drilled all the way through the mesh, and then took the biggest flat screwdriver they make and slowly would chip away the mesh around the hole that I drilled. It seemed that if I just started beatin the screwdriver with a hammer, the mesh would just crunch together, and made it harder to break apart. It was not fun!! But worth saving the money on buying off road pipes somewhere else.

And I removed all the mesh. I don't think you would want to put them back on with just part of it taken out.

S3XPanther · 11-25-2011, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tech@JDP

The sound will change considerably. It will be a decent amount louder, and be a lot more raspy.
I'm not a fan of how a no-cat setup sounds, at all.

But to each, his own.

Wouldn't a proper muffler setup eliminate the raspiness?

2L82RUN · 11-25-2011, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tech@JDP

The sound will change considerably. It will be a decent amount louder, and be a lot more raspy.
I'm not a fan of how a no-cat setup sounds, at all.

But to each, his own.

I'm not sure what no-cat setup you heard but I can tell you for sure that my setup doesn't sound raspy at all. I get complimented all the time about how good the car sounds. I'm sure there may be some setups that sound raspy but it's not guaranteed to sound that way if you remove the cats

calbert1999 · 11-25-2011, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tech@JDP

The sound will change considerably. It will be a decent amount louder, and be a lot more raspy.
I'm not a fan of how a no-cat setup sounds, at all.

But to each, his own.

I'd say that depends on the mufflers you have.
Just heard my friends 418ci. gut'd cats. Sounds, awesome.

MarylandSpeed · 11-26-2011, 12:23 AM

First off, I think this gets a bit blown out of proportion in that in terms of warranty claims, there has been nothing unusual with the Camaro as far as Kooks cats. I have seen 3-4 fail in several hundred sold..and pretty much every one of them was supercharged. The bottom line is a supercharger adds a bunch of heat to the exhaust equation if not properly tuned. If you run a supercharged set up with cats, it has to be tuned almost perfectly once it gets over 600 HP. When I say that, I mean that a properly tuned supercharged car will have exhaust gas temps similar to stock. However a improperly tuned car will have exhaust gas temps hot enough to make the manifolds glow. In general cats do not just fail..there has to be a cause..and normally the issue is the tune. The problem is, tuning is is a black science most people do not understand. There also multiple ways when tuning to accomplish the same thing. I recently saw a tune someone paid $600 for from a supposedly reputable tuner that took supposedly a day to do. When compared to the stock tune, less than 10 tables were played with, and the VE table was not touched. The car ran okay, but it had a very lazy tune in it that was not all it could be or worth $600 in labor. Whenever a cat fails, I tell people to have their tune checked because the cat failure is an effect of a cause. However then most people argue their tuner is gods gift to tuners, and blame the cat.

Also I want to stress cat failures are not limited to Kooks. They are rare to begin with, but we have them with every manufacturer's headers we sell.

In my personal experiance, I have a GTO and a Camaro both supercharged at that 600 HP level, and I have never had a cat failure..mine look fine. However my tunes have also been absolutly dialed in.

calbert1999 · 11-26-2011, 01:21 AM

Guess there's a lot of lousy tuners out there because everyones cats are melting. But, then I guess it's not that difficult to bolt on some parts vs tuning.

S3XPanther · 11-26-2011, 01:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by calbert1999

Guess there's a lot of lousy tuners out there because everyones cats are melting. But, then I guess it's not that difficult to bolt on some parts vs tuning.

I wouldn't call Jannetty a "bad" tuner, and he's still seen such failures.

calbert1999 · 11-26-2011, 01:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by S3XPanther

I wouldn't call Jannetty a "bad" tuner, and he's still seen such failures.

Bottom line manufacturers making shitty cats that don't hold up. Simple and plain.

TCAT · 11-26-2011, 01:59 AM

I have an important question I just thought of, and hope some of the tuners can chime in:

I have pair of JBA high flow cats that are used with roughly 3000 miles on them (the previous owners car was NA, so that should help with longevity of the cats). My car is Turbocharged and still has the stock cats on the car. So, if I decided to get the JBA high flow cats installed and have the car retuned for more power, one day (if the time came) if I decided to switch the JBA high flow cats for mid pipes without cats, will the car need to be retuned to be safe???

I would assume it wouldn't need retuning because people keep saying there is barely a difference in power between the no cats and high flow cats, but maybe there is pressure differences or heat, etc. If I didn't have to get the car retuned from high flows to mid pipes without cats, that would be fantastic to leave that option available down the road if my high flows keep burning out on me.

oachalon · 11-26-2011, 07:50 PM

i am looking to put LT headers on my supercharged car and it looks like its best to run no cats. The issue is where i live we have an E-Check every couple years. The problem is not passing the test as they just plug in to the car and see if it passes emissions. Thats easily fixed in a tune. The issue is they put a mirror under the car to see if you have cats. Are there any midpipes out there made to look like cats. The people running these things are not very smart.

S3XPanther · 11-26-2011, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oachalon

i am looking to put LT headers on my supercharged car and it looks like its best to run no cats. The issue is where i live we have an E-Check every couple years. The problem is not passing the test as they just plug in to the car and see if it passes emissions. Thats easily fixed in a tune. The issue is they put a mirror under the car to see if you have cats. Are there any midpipes out there made to look like cats. The people running these things are not very smart.

If you gut your existing hi flows you would have mid pipes that look like cats, but there's obviously nothing in there any more.

yotaman96 · 11-26-2011, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oachalon

i am looking to put LT headers on my supercharged car and it looks like its best to run no cats. The issue is where i live we have an E-Check every couple years. The problem is not passing the test as they just plug in to the car and see if it passes emissions. Thats easily fixed in a tune. The issue is they put a mirror under the car to see if you have cats. Are there any midpipes out there made to look like cats. The people running these things are not very smart.

I think the Kooks midpipes look like cats.

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11-25-2011, 05:57 PM	#114
JDP Tech Drives: 2010 CGM Camaro 2SS/RS 429 LSX/F1X Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Sandy, UT Posts: 429	The sound will change considerably. It will be a decent amount louder, and be a lot more raspy. I'm not a fan of how a no-cat setup sounds, at all. But to each, his own.

11-26-2011, 12:23 AM	#119
MarylandSpeed Account Suspended Drives: 2012 ZL1 & 2010 2SS/RS Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Maryland Posts: 3,378	First off, I think this gets a bit blown out of proportion in that in terms of warranty claims, there has been nothing unusual with the Camaro as far as Kooks cats. I have seen 3-4 fail in several hundred sold..and pretty much every one of them was supercharged. The bottom line is a supercharger adds a bunch of heat to the exhaust equation if not properly tuned. If you run a supercharged set up with cats, it has to be tuned almost perfectly once it gets over 600 HP. When I say that, I mean that a properly tuned supercharged car will have exhaust gas temps similar to stock. However a improperly tuned car will have exhaust gas temps hot enough to make the manifolds glow. In general cats do not just fail..there has to be a cause..and normally the issue is the tune. The problem is, tuning is is a black science most people do not understand. There also multiple ways when tuning to accomplish the same thing. I recently saw a tune someone paid $600 for from a supposedly reputable tuner that took supposedly a day to do. When compared to the stock tune, less than 10 tables were played with, and the VE table was not touched. The car ran okay, but it had a very lazy tune in it that was not all it could be or worth $600 in labor. Whenever a cat fails, I tell people to have their tune checked because the cat failure is an effect of a cause. However then most people argue their tuner is gods gift to tuners, and blame the cat. Also I want to stress cat failures are not limited to Kooks. They are rare to begin with, but we have them with every manufacturer's headers we sell. In my personal experiance, I have a GTO and a Camaro both supercharged at that 600 HP level, and I have never had a cat failure..mine look fine. However my tunes have also been absolutly dialed in.

11-26-2011, 01:21 AM	#120
calbert1999 Camaro SS Lover Drives: 2010 Camaro 2SS/RS Black IOM Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Toronto, Ontario (Canada) Posts: 2,862	Guess there's a lot of lousy tuners out there because everyones cats are melting. But, then I guess it's not that difficult to bolt on some parts vs tuning.

11-26-2011, 01:59 AM	#123
TCAT Drives: Has Wheels Join Date: May 2011 Location: On Earth Posts: 5,553	I have an important question I just thought of, and hope some of the tuners can chime in: I have pair of JBA high flow cats that are used with roughly 3000 miles on them (the previous owners car was NA, so that should help with longevity of the cats). My car is Turbocharged and still has the stock cats on the car. So, if I decided to get the JBA high flow cats installed and have the car retuned for more power, one day (if the time came) if I decided to switch the JBA high flow cats for mid pipes without cats, will the car need to be retuned to be safe??? I would assume it wouldn't need retuning because people keep saying there is barely a difference in power between the no cats and high flow cats, but maybe there is pressure differences or heat, etc. If I didn't have to get the car retuned from high flows to mid pipes without cats, that would be fantastic to leave that option available down the road if my high flows keep burning out on me.

11-26-2011, 07:50 PM	#124
oachalon Drives: 2010 Camaro 1SS Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Mentor, Ohio Posts: 999 View My Garage	i am looking to put LT headers on my supercharged car and it looks like its best to run no cats. The issue is where i live we have an E-Check every couple years. The problem is not passing the test as they just plug in to the car and see if it passes emissions. Thats easily fixed in a tune. The issue is they put a mirror under the car to see if you have cats. Are there any midpipes out there made to look like cats. The people running these things are not very smart.