Had any one removed their cats all together, and replaced them with an empty pipe? So your car is completely catless :)

was just curious if any one done this, and if it's noisy, and if there are any HP gains....and how much and where i can get the pipes from.

Alex-

Basically no HP gains on a NA car.

It makes the exhaust smell funny
You'll get a permanent check engine light
It makes the car a bit louder

Not sure where you'll get pipes made. Most muffler shops won't touch something like this because its illegal in most places.

what's the point of a straight flow cat then, if removing the cat all together does not help?

...i am still thinking off my rx7, cause removing cats there +down pipe helped a whole bunch.

alex-

For the RS (that isn't turbo'd) removing the cats will net you a loss in low end torque, however you'll find that your top end is better.

It's a tradeoff. And it stinks. And the CE light.

Depends what you want out of the car.

And yes, it is louder, pops a heck of a lot more too. :)

is it even worth spending money on a straight flow cat, assuming that eventually headers will be added? or i should not bother with it untill headers are installed?

Alex-

NA cars that WANT torque need cats, either stock or highflow, Regardless it needs that backpressure.

Turbos dont need the 'restriction' of cats, as the turbo(s) spool up faster & create more boost w/o cats...ie: a catless downpipe.

If you go no cats with NA you MIGHT see an increase in HP, but you will lose ALOT of torque. In a 4-banger torque is your blood :D.

Make sense?
-justin

Anybody know how to trick the ECU so that the light won't come on if your catless? As far as I know it's for a "inefficient cat function" ie too much pollution. I'm going turbo, and want to do this, but hate the CE light.
Thanks,
Mike

Where is this CE light issue coming from... I had a Stromung track pipe on my car for over a year (including cold weather..if that matters) ... and no CE light EVER....

Is it because it's an MY98?

edit: of course..that was only eliminating the second CAT... Nevertheless, I've heard people mentioning the CE light with only the second CAT gone...yet I never got the the light.

2YLite. I think it shouldn't be coming on with just the lack of one catalytic converter. I think all the ECU does is to see if theres a difference in O2 reading between the first and second O2 sensor. If theres still a cat between them, its still cleaning the exhaust so the difference is there, thus no CE light.

A friend has a 98 RS with NO cats and gets a CE light (but he just unplugged the light so he wouldn't have to look at it :))

I removed both of the cats and now i have a permanet CE light, but the car pulls harder, i weld the o2 sensors to the track pipe a little bit behind that where it is suppost to go, the only problem is that now i am getting less mpg,and a CE, but not such a big difference.

But i noticed a difference, because the car started to pull harder when i did this

Now i am getting 20 mpg