GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Has anyone here ever gutted their catalytic converter? Are there any downfalls if i gut it? i dont have to pass emissions here. I hear it can increase some power. And i hear itll make a car sound awesome sometimes. My friend has a Spec-V with his gutted and it sounds awesome. Advice please guys... thanks

Against federal regulations....I highly advise folks not to chime in.

only thing I will say is if you do gut it, save the material in it.. it's worth quite a bit of cash.

well theres no emission tests here... so performance is all i care about. and yeah that stuff is worth a ton now!

Lolz, aside from failing IM, I went completely catless and gutted my pipes in the 05 LGT and of course replaced all the exhaust parts on the 08 STI, and also 07 STI. I have not played with the exhaust on my current vehicles however, as performance isn't my intention as it is getting good fuel economy, not polluting the sky nor do I care about how it sounds. Just remember, it's expensive to replace the cats. Better to just get an a/m exhaust IMO or go hi-flow cat for performance and sound.

This thread reminds me when my cat got stolen from my 92 caviler lol

Quote, originally posted by ou.grizzly »Against federal regulations....I highly advise folks not to chime in. INdeed, gutting out a cat IS illegal and against federal law, don't do it.however...It is NOT illegal to purchase a test pipe for diagnostic purposes. That way you can install it, if your cat "isn't your problem" you still have the cat to reinstall as federal law mandates.Dave

consider a high flow performance replacement cat. you should get similar performance increase. i doubt any sound difference tho. cat back would be the best option for sound and some performance. or just a muffler would get you a good sound with a smaller price tag

X3 for the high flow cat option.

A high flow CAT is a waste of money IMO. If you're lucky you'll get 3 years use out of it before it burns out. I say delete the CAT all together. Besides being illegal, the only draw back to not running a CAT is you'll be running a CEL and your exhaust fumes will smell like rotten eggs. NOTE: You can bypass the CEL by making your own O2 defouler. Btw, here's a "How To" http://www.newcelica.org/forum...16641

Quote, originally posted by Cruxless »A high flow CAT is a waste of money IMO. If you're lucky you'll get 3 years use out of it before it burns out. I say delete the CAT all together.I am coming up on year #6 with my Magnaflow Hi-flow Cat.

Quote, originally posted by BlueCrush »I am coming up on year #6 with my Magnaflow Hi-flow Cat.Wow that's impressive. Still though, if I could delete my CAT without worries I would. BlueCrush, out of curiosity what engine mods are you running?

Quote, originally posted by BlueCrush »I am coming up on year #6 with my Magnaflow Hi-flow Cat.thats good to know. i have a magnaflow cat back now, plan on getting a header and a magnaflow hi flow cat to free up the rest of the exhaust.

a well made hi-flow performance cat will last longer than 3 yrs. We run catted and uncatted pipes on our Subies all the time. Get quality though, and you will see a very very slight difference in performance than catless. Also, as someone mentioned, it does smell like rotten eggs and fuel. I almost forgot. LOL! Been over a year since I had to smell it on a regular basis.

From what I've read and have been told gutting the CAT will do very little for these engines. HI-FLOW cats (althought can improve performance by a very small amount) will cause CELS that can be ofcourse "fixed" with a resistor.

why would that cause a cel? i would not expect that as long as its working properly. should still filter or clean as well right? i would like to hear from others on that note. bluecrush?... is this happening with high quality converters or cheap ebay type thing?

I haven't had any issues with my hi-flow cat. MY AWD has 2 cats on in the header and one after the downpipe. When I gutted the cat in the header I did get a P0420 cel. I went back to a catted header after a while. If I go back to a decatted header, I will use a defouler to eliminate the CEL.

is your exhaust different than my 03 base? i mine LOOKS like it has two cats. haven't seen it in a while but i remember cat, o2 sensor, cat. so nothing monitoring the second. my understanding was that the second was actually a resonator. am i wrong? edit ok i was wrong. cat, o2 sensor, cat, resonator. so bluecrush are either of your cats original? how would you feel about eliminating the second since it appears nothing is checking it, so this would not cause a cel right? and then replace the first with a high flow?

The AWD is different from the FWD base Vibe. I haven't looked at the FWD much though so I really couldn't tell you.

cat, o2 sensor, cat, resonator. this should be right i got this from joatman's cat replacement, searched for his garage and looks like he drives an 03 base.

the 03 GT is cat, O2 sensor, Cat, O2 sensor, resonator, muffler.

Quote, originally posted by silverbullet »edit ok i was wrong. cat, o2 sensor, cat, resonator. so bluecrush are either of your cats original? how would you feel about eliminating the second since it appears nothing is checking it, so this would not cause a cel right? and then replace the first with a high flow? I have O2 sensors after each of my cats. My header cat is oem, the second is a hi-flow cat. I can't say if doing that will cause a cel or not since mine is not the same.

DJ Losch 411 don't listen to them ^, just get rid of it.

Gutting the CAT will not pass emissions. It will pass the visual but when they put the tester in the exhaust pipe, it will read too high. If you live in CA or WA, then you would be keen to the emissions laws already, because they let nothing slide. If you want to, just cut it out and do a test pipe if you really want to milk all that "power" out of a 1.8 litre motor. I put a cold air tube on mine and that will be about the extent of it. More power =different car. Trust me. Save your pennies.

If you wanna open it up and pull out all the hazardous-ness be my guest.If your not concerned with it at all, why gut it? Just cut the thing out and weld in an open pipe.

I too thought about cuttin the cats on the vibe, but not really liking the Honda high loud tone, I did it to my Ls1 firebird & when racing or rev at high rpms she can scream loud! I'm running Lt Pacesetter headers welded to 3" custom y pipe w/dynomax True dual bullets, I passed a few times here & there without cats, if I didn't pass I'll offer them more money to pass it's illegal to do that but money talks I only had to offer 3times & didn't pay no more then $30-$45 in the past

yeah i really wanna do it... but i dont want it to have that "honda" sound. after all it is just a 1.8 lol

Simple fix, add a small Y-pipe before the cat with a flapper. My friend did this to his Camaro, he would just pull open the ashtray, pull a wire and it would close off the cat piping and route the flow right out the other pipe straight out the side. Loud as hell but apparently it worked well.

I don't believe either solution would be favorably looked upon by most states and their inspection officers.And the neighbors would surly hate the second one.

I gutted mine today and there is no raspy noise from the exhaust. under the car its a little louder, but not raspy. Inside girl friend cant even tell the difference..

OK, I think we're done on this topic.It is a violation of Federal emissions laws to tamper with or remove emissions control devices.Forum rules specifically prohibit discussion of illegal activities. Locked