Exhaust & Hi Flow Cat questions

[jjcivic92]

I have a 1992 Honda Civic, and I'm thinking about getting the old cat taken off and putting on a Jackson Racing Hi Flow cat. Then, I'm want to run 2" or 2.5" pipe from the exhaust manifold back. Here's the question .. Someone told me my cat was hooked into my header because I wanted to get it cut off, cleaned out, and put back on. But because of it being hooked to the header they couldn't do that. Is this even possible? That just dosen't sound right to me. Even so, could I still have it removed and have the hi flow installed with any problem? My Dad told me to chunk the resinator, is that a good or bad idea? What would happen to the overall performance of the car or would anything happen at all beside making my exhaust sound louder? Hope you guys/gals can help out. Thanks.

Just disconnect the cat from both sides....if its anything like my car, it'll have nuts, holding the resonator onto the cat, adn on the other side, it should have two springy screwys (lol) attached to the down pipe....just get under your car, and check it out....and yes, i do believe that a high flow cat would increase power...by how much? i dunno

[blind34_1]

A hi flow cat wont do too much to peformance..maybe free up 1 horse. If your doing a full exhaust job then yes your gains will be more. I dont know how much more though...

have you gotten any quotes from exhaust shops yet? I want to do the same thing to my car, but its pricey. I'm looking at stainless steel only though.

well, your car is OBD-1, so I would take off the catalytic converter completly and have a muffler shop weld a pipe in it's place, you won't see very good gains with just a high flow cat. Only do this if you know someone that will pass your car on inspection with no cat

[silver]

maybe you want to tone down your exhaust size to maybe 2 1/4"
you may begin to lose a little low end w/ the 2 1/2" piping. remember that you are only playing with a little part of your exhaust system as well. your exhaust system starts long before your header, so don't expect any major gains without playing with the rest of your airflow.

[jjcivic92]

Thanks for y'alls input. I also plan to get a AEM Cold Air intake for my car. My Dad's really pissy about removing the cat itself. He's stuck on the whole illegal thing, but he goes for the Hi Flow cat stuff. Thanks for the input on the piping too. I thought 2.5" would be too much. As far as pricing goes, I know a guy who owns a Midas around here, and he said he'll do it for cheap but he hasen't given a price yet. Once, I get on, I'll let you know man. Thanks again.

If you can get the midas guy to loan you a lift after hours, you should be able to do it yourself easily. Toughest thing to do might be sawing off rusty bolts.

[jjcivic92]

Yeah, that's true. I might be able to do some of the stuff by myself. David, the Midas guy, said he would run the piping and all for free. So, the new plan is to buy a performance header, and just run straight 2 and a quarter piping from the performance header back. What do you think about that? Thanks for all the help.

[silver]

sounds good, what kind of muffler?
if I may make a recommendation, take a look at the revolution series from ac-autotechnic, very nice mufflers.

[jjcivic92]

Right now I have a Ravin muffler. Thanks for the recommendation though. First thing I'll do, before redoing all the exhaust, is buy a AEM cold air intake. I found one a civicshop.com for 169.99 plus shipping. I believe that's a pretty good price. If anyone knows a cheaper site, let me know please.

just to follow up on what was said

you dont need a large diameter exhaust on a honda engine, unless your pulling 200 ++ horses through it, you dont need a huge pipe, all it does is make people laugh at you ( thats what i do anyway)

if you want your car to sound nicer, just get an CAI, a better investment IMO, its also a much easier do it yourself job and maintains a sleeper look.