"Should I Buy This?"/"What Do You Think About This" Thread??

[Effilcdar]

Originally Posted by ctlw83

LX would be a sedan...I believe. Yeah, I bought the care with 68k on it and I am at 91k now, so, should probably change the CAT along with the exhaust...

Don't replace the cat unless it clogs if you do replace it replace it with an OEM cat. For the intake if you are going for fuel economy then you definitely want a warm air intake/ Short Ram Intake (SRI) not a full cold air intake. You just want a cheap tube (hey its a tube not much engineering involved. Then slap a decent K&N filter on the end of it. The filter is where the difference is not the tube. Now on this next point performance and economy are in opposition. If you want economy block off the intake tubing that comes up from the fender area and try to draw your air in from the area of the radiator and exhaust manifold. Warmer air will provide better fuel economy but less power. Also consider using an energy conserving oil (its marked on the bottles) and make SURE that the level is not over filled (otherwise you loose a lot of energy stirring the oil in the crankcase). Running it half way between the min and max lines on the dipstick might save you a mpg or so just remember to check the oil level more often.

[91EGGURA]

i say change the cat to high flow, the easier air flows through the headers from the engine to the end of the exhaust tip the better. oem tends to be restrictive from the airbox to the headers cat and muffler. it just makes sense the easier the air flows through the engine a little better gas mileage and a little more power but not much. the highflow cat will just be a little louder and give a diff pitch. just my opinion not trying to say i know all. of course if you're keeping it stock the oem everything is what you need

[mattliston]

for a wopping 1-2 whp gain, then high flow. you only see real benefit when the motor is turbo'd or built up really good NA

otherwise, keep the oem cat. very good for anti-rasp

[esr450]

do any of you guys have pictures of a da with em1 rims? im curious to see how it would look.....

[91EGGURA]

Originally Posted by mattliston

for a wopping 1-2 whp gain, then high flow. you only see real benefit when the motor is turbo'd or built up really good NA

otherwise, keep the oem cat. very good for anti-rasp

hey, you get it where you can get it, right?

[mattliston]

true true. but I like the anti rasp feature lol

[Effilcdar]

Yes you could remove the OEM cat and install a "high flow cat" that is usualy just an empty pipe. You will get about 1/3 of a HP and about 1/10th of a MPG. Your car will sound like shit. Your car's exhaust will smell bad. You will be putting twice the pollutants into the air (CO, NOx, HC). If that sounds like a good deal to you then by all means spend your money on it but I will sincerely hope that you eventually get a ticket for it because it makes you a self centered jackass that reflects poorly on all of us. Its one thing on a turbocharged application where back presures are in another league or even in a high end all motor build but there is NO excuse for it in a mostly stock N/A daily driver.

[mattliston]

highflow cats are still emissions rated, they are simply higher flowing. the shit pipes you are talking about are called test pipes.


yeah, easy 1-2hp gain, but its taking a major hit in the sound department (loud)

[Effilcdar]

You're being very optimistic if you think a mostly stock car will get 1-2 HP from a cat change. The stock cats just don't make that much of a restriction unless you've replaced every other part of the exhaust system with larger pipes. And I am aware of the difference between a high flow cat and a test pipe but unfortunately the test pipes have been marketed as both to the point that I don't trust the Honda community at large to know the difference. I still believe that the D series is not well benefited by exhaust change in that way. If you want more power you should be changing things under the hood and if you want a sound change then put on a cat back. There is no reason to change the cats unless you've already changed most everything else. I'm not a tree huger that wants to tell you you have to drive slow to protect the environment but I do think its wrong to do something that trashes the environment with no gain, even if you got a high flow cat that that was as effective in reducing pollution it would not be a cost effective improvement to the engine compared to other easier options.

[mattliston]

prove me wrong


bTW magnaflow makes a high flow cat. it passes emissions testing, and allows much better flow. the biggest reason is because its the same thing, but instaead of like 1.2 or 1.5 inside diamtere, its more like 2 inchs. thats a huge increase in flow effectiveness.


the D series has more potential then you think.

also, I had a stock manifold and cat, rest was ebay catback. felt ecatly the same, sounded worse though. repalced the cat with a egay test pipe. simply a straight through piece of piping with flanges. noticed barely anything, and that difference was felt only around redline. reaplaced the manifold with an egay header. boom, had much more power.

take your words and shove it "coming form the hodna ciommunity as a whole"


I got a laugh tonight

EDIT and my current setup is ebay header, OBD2 catalytic converter, and ebay cat back

[mattliston]

BTW you can increase your horsepower by over 1hp just by polishing everywhere the air flows. you can NEVER feel less then a 5hp increase, but it can be had. hell, you can give yourself like 1-2hp just by removing your O2 sensor and capping that hole up, and running in open loop mode via a chip burner.

[Effilcdar]

I never said that the d series was without potential but I did say that a primarily stock D series did not benifit from cat replacements. You yourself just agreed that it was not until you replaced the headers that you noticed any change in performance. As I said when EVERY other pipe in the exhaust system is changed a modification to the cat may be worthwhile but even then there is more to be gained under the hood, more easily and for less cost. And you know as well as I do that we should filter some of what we say on here for those on this site that buy the "Turbonators" and the "electric superchargers" and the "car sponsorship services" not to mention all the people out there that routinely think that a 3 foot tall wing and bald tires makes them a race car driver. As I said there is a time and a place to remove the cat on a car but it is very far down the list.

[mattliston]

actualy, what I meant to say was that the header was the only thing that gave any sort of noticable improvement, hence proving the cat doesnt do squat. I tried my testpipe with the ehader and catback, didnt notice anything diffferent, except at redline, as before the header.


Im in a very argumentative mood, fucking hot and humid blah

im going to bed

[slow_eh2]

Originally Posted by esr450

do any of you guys have pictures of a da with em1 rims? im curious to see how it would look.....

fucking google.

Originally Posted by mattliston

true true. but I like the anti rasp feature lol

dont we all?

Originally Posted by Effilcdar

You're being very optimistic if you think a mostly stock car will get 1-2 HP from a cat change. The stock cats just don't make that much of a restriction unless you've replaced every other part of the exhaust system with larger pipes. And I am aware of the difference between a high flow cat and a test pipe but unfortunately the test pipes have been marketed as both to the point that I don't trust the Honda community at large to know the difference. I still believe that the D series is not well benefited by exhaust change in that way. If you want more power you should be changing things under the hood and if you want a sound change then put on a cat back. There is no reason to change the cats unless you've already changed most everything else. I'm not a tree huger that wants to tell you you have to drive slow to protect the environment but I do think its wrong to do something that trashes the environment with no gain, even if you got a high flow cat that that was as effective in reducing pollution it would not be a cost effective improvement to the engine compared to other easier options.

dont make me pull the dyno charts dude... everyone knows i have and love them...

Originally Posted by mattliston

prove me wrong


bTW magnaflow makes a high flow cat. it passes emissions testing, and allows much better flow. the biggest reason is because its the same thing, but instaead of like 1.2 or 1.5 inside diamtere, its more like 2 inchs. thats a huge increase in flow effectiveness.


the D series has more potential then you think.

also, I had a stock manifold and cat, rest was ebay catback. felt ecatly the same, sounded worse though. repalced the cat with a egay test pipe. simply a straight through piece of piping with flanges. noticed barely anything, and that difference was felt only around redline. reaplaced the manifold with an egay header. boom, had much more power.

take your words and shove it "coming form the hodna ciommunity as a whole"


I got a laugh tonight

EDIT and my current setup is ebay header, OBD2 catalytic converter, and ebay cat back

thank you liston. for using common sense.

Originally Posted by mattliston

BTW you can increase your horsepower by over 1hp just by polishing everywhere the air flows. you can NEVER feel less then a 5hp increase, but it can be had. hell, you can give yourself like 1-2hp just by removing your O2 sensor and capping that hole up, and running in open loop mode via a chip burner.

ive heard of this!!!!! i want to try it.

Originally Posted by Effilcdar

I never said that the d series was without potential but I did say that a primarily stock D series did not benifit from cat replacements. You yourself just agreed that it was not until you replaced the headers that you noticed any change in performance. As I said when EVERY other pipe in the exhaust system is changed a modification to the cat may be worthwhile but even then there is more to be gained under the hood, more easily and for less cost. And you know as well as I do that we should filter some of what we say on here for those on this site that buy the "Turbonators" and the "electric superchargers" and the "car sponsorship services" not to mention all the people out there that routinely think that a 3 foot tall wing and bald tires makes them a race car driver. As I said there is a time and a place to remove the cat on a car but it is very far down the list.

under the hood? yeah cause d series are great with bolt ons. and i have dynos that prove a 1200$ i/h/e set up only nets 10whp and 10 ft-lbs of torque at redline. for that price you can break 220Whp with boost....

boost is cost effective for a dseries. nothing else.

Originally Posted by mattliston

actualy, what I meant to say was that the header was the only thing that gave any sort of noticable improvement, hence proving the cat doesnt do squat. I tried my testpipe with the ehader and catback, didnt notice anything diffferent, except at redline, as before the header.


Im in a very argumentative mood, fucking hot and humid blah

im going to bed

hot and humid and sticky here too bro. my nuts are sticking to my thigh.

[91EGGURA]

Originally Posted by Effilcdar

Yes you could remove the OEM cat and install a "high flow cat" that is usualy just an empty pipe. You will get about 1/3 of a HP and about 1/10th of a MPG. Your car will sound like shit. Your car's exhaust will smell bad. You will be putting twice the pollutants into the air (CO, NOx, HC). If that sounds like a good deal to you then by all means spend your money on it but I will sincerely hope that you eventually get a ticket for it because it makes you a self centered jackass that reflects poorly on all of us. Its one thing on a turbocharged application where back presures are in another league or even in a high end all motor build but there is NO excuse for it in a mostly stock N/A daily driver.

my exhaust does smell different, but it does not sound like shit. got to find the right cat/muff combo. my first muffler with the cat sounded awful. my second muff quieted it down quite a bit and deepened it to where it doesn't sound like a baby crying loudly down the road when i slam it. if i don't slam the gas my car doesn't like i've done anything exhaust wise