Hi,
I have a 2000 cavalier z22 and i plan on removing de cat in hope of gaining a little more performance. I'm not sure it's a good move because i know that on some cars, doing this will actualy make the car lose some power.
So before i do it, i just wanted to know what you guys thought. Will i gain some performance by doing it?
Thanks!
No reason to remove it imo, Possibly a high flow would be a better choice.
no power to be gained through removing the cat. if anything, do a full exhaust, header, cat, resonator, mandrel bent pipe, and a muffler. that will gain you about... 4 hp. also: your car is a lie. the z22 never existed.
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Mike (96RedCav) wrote: Possibly a high flow would be a better choice.
Well.. isn't just having no cat the highest flow you could get at the lowest cost?
Super Dave wrote:Mike (96RedCav) wrote: Possibly a high flow would be a better choice.
Well.. isn't just having no cat the highest flow you could get at the lowest cost?
in short, yes. but having a high flow cat has the benefit of being emissions legal, and not setting off the CEL. if thats not a problem where you live then go for it, gain the 1/2 a horsepower you will from putting in a test pipe on a stock exhaust.
my suggestion, if theres nothing wrong with the cat then dont mess with it yet. if you want an actual upgrade save up some money and do this
Rich Grayo Jr. wrote: if anything, do a full exhaust, header, cat, resonator, mandrel bent pipe, and a muffler. that will gain you about... 4 hp.
at least that you'd be able to notice.
Jon D wrote:
in short, yes. but having a high flow cat has the benefit of being emissions legal, and not setting off the CEL. if thats not a problem where you live then go for it, gain the 1/2 a horsepower you will from putting in a test pipe on a stock exhaust.
my suggestion, if theres nothing wrong with the cat then dont mess with it yet. if you want an actual upgrade save up some money and do this
Well, the reason i first thought about doing it was because the car is 10 years old... There isn't any significant power loss that i noticed yet but i'm guessing that, from the age of the car, the cat is probably getting slowly clogged up by now... That's why i wanted to remove it. Am i way off here?
PS: The legal aspect of it isn't an issue here.
as far as I know cat's are designed to last the life of the car. Therefore unless you car has been running like @!#$ and dumping loads of fuel into your exhaust system, you cat shouldnt be clogged. Removing it will not really help much as previously stated. It will actually be more annoying. Not only will your exhaust sound like @!#$ because now it is more raspy, it will also but on an annoying CEL.
well if it is not an issue, it's your choice on whether to do it or not. You should definitely put a resonator in it's place or you will be raspy.
if its not causing any noticable issues then its most likely fine. when the honeycombs start to break up they tend to do so in chunks. hit the cat with a rubber mallet, dont beat on it but tap it. if you hear anything rattling around inside the cat then id start to consider it. if there was something floating arond in there you'd probably notice it by now. when my cat broke up a big enough piece came off that it wasnt able to pass through the resonator on the stock exhaust. the car INSTANTLY started flashing the CEL at me and the car had absolutely NO power (due to 0 exhaust flow). when i stopped in my driveway a mile or 2 down the road i got under the car and the cat was glowing bright red. so believe me when i say that if its clogged, you'll know about it almost the instant it happens.
if you can tolerate the CEL always being on then its up to you man.
good luck with it whatever you choose
You can remove it and run a simple O2 simulator to keep the CEL from coming on...no problems. You will get a lightly raspy note to the exhaust but not too bad. You wont see that much as far as gains.
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