So here's the jist of the story.
Tsudo 4-2-1 stainless header with 2.25" outlet.
2.5" Top Speed Performance stainless catback.
All I am missing is a test pipe. Now, I know it's illegal on the road but that's what my 2.5" Magnaflow cat is for.
I want a mandrel bent test pipe. How can I go about this? I know shops won't delete a cat willingly. :/
California Muffler and Midas are the only 2 places I know of with a mandrel bender. I would prefer stainless but it's expensive.
Thanks in advance.
Why would you need the pipe mandrel bent? Its a straight peice of pipe.
See how each side of the cat has a flange, just have one shop install your cat that way. Then have another show make you a pipe with matching flanges that will fit in there. They don't need to know why you need the pipe, it could be for your lawn mower
i have a test pipe if youre interested. its not stainless though, its ceramic coated. It came with my DC header and i didnt need it.
I had a test pipe made for the turbo cav. I used it once, absolutely no seat of the pants gain, just louder. Not worth the hassle IMO.
I do not understad why you need mandrel bet either. The cat should be under the car, where it would be straight.
FU Tuning
You need a stainless test pipe for the track?
I think you'll find the difference between a high flow cat and a test pipe to be very, very small... especially on a mostly stock J-body... if you had a bigger powerplant in there, I'd worry about it... but you have nothing to fear.
Oh, and BTW... a true Mandrel bender costs a LOT of money.. very few places actually have a true Mandrel bender... so find me a Midas with one... and I've got a bridge I could sell ya!!!
I only know of a few places that have Mandrel benders.. Magnaflow.. etc.. BIG suppliers. No muffler shop I've ever been to has anything close... some use compression benders which are better than crush benders... but not by much.
Just saw one listed last night on Ebay, but I'm too lazy to go looking for it again. I will say it is the only test pipe I've seen for a Jbody.
I know the true mandrel benders are big $$$. I looked underneath again to double check. It seems as though the cat is plumbed in from the front of my catback to the flange on the header...
I will have to wait and see where the really long pipe with the header puts me tomorrow...
So now about the downstream O2... is it just going to throw a CEL? It doesn't affect open/closed loop right?
really though, why do you need the test pipe? for most, if not all 4-bangers, you will NOT see much, if an gains at all. even on quite a few v6's and inline 6's you won't notice much. only on the larger end ones or boosted ones, again, not often though, will you see/feel anything.
and as said earlier, why would you need the pipe bent? the cat is in a strait position, just get one done with a flange set on either end and be done with it. unless you're setting something up so it ends up being side exit.
word to the wise:
anyone using a launch control or 2-step limiter.. DO NOT put a cat on the car. I put a high flow on the skwirl to get thru inspection, and made the mistake of testing my 2-step when I re-wired the switch.
wasn't much left of the insides of that cat.. blew the thing clean
I would love to see a video of that ^
cats blowing out is a sight to see.
DaFlyinSkwir(LS61) /PJ/ OEM+ wrote:word to the wise:
anyone using a launch control or 2-step limiter.. DO NOT put a cat on the car. I put a high flow on the skwirl to get thru inspection, and made the mistake of testing my 2-step when I re-wired the switch.
wasn't much left of the insides of that cat.. blew the thing clean
what causes it to do that?
I'm guessing the heat it creates.
Yeah I saw the vid of the Skwirl 2-stepping.
Mostly because I don't want to fork out for a high-flow cat when I have a section of pipe that will do the job. When I get my header on tonight we'll figure something out.
FstCavZ24 wrote:I had a test pipe made for the turbo cav. I used it once, absolutely no seat of the pants gain, just louder. Not worth the hassle IMO.
I agree....No difference between a cat and no cat.
