Trust, my man your amazing for helping me out. But i got one last question, do you know of any CA legal cats? from what i've heard only OEM cats are sold.

 

I think there's a 50 state universal magnaflow cat. You'll have to get it welded on though. It's MUCH cheaper though and you could just have it welded into the stock piping instead of cutting and moving the flange. You'll also need an O2 sensor bung for after the cat and have that welded into the piping.

 

never mind, it's not CA approved.

 

so purchasing a OEM cat from a honda dealer is my only option huh?

i was told from a friend of mine who's a mechanic as well and he told me to get the flanges to the cat, rather then weld it so i can just put a test pipe in its place.

 

you don't need to use a test pipe. You only need a test pipe if you want to put an EX exhaust on a DX civic with DX header/cat, to fill in the gap since the EX exhaust is 16.25" shorter

you're still confusing me.

 

okay here is what my friend told me
thats what my buddy was telling me (he's a mechanic too but not really on cars mostly trucks offroad cars etc.)

 

Woops double post.

 

You could do that but then what's the difference between having a shady shop have you pass smog and doing that with the test pipe?

I thought you wanted to do it the legal way? Didn't you say you don't want your girlfriend or wife or something to have to deal with that while you are gone when she has to get it smogged?


If you just want to do it like that then go bribe a shady shop to have you pass emissions. It's just as illegal as what you would do with the test pipe, so there's no point going through the extra effort.

 

no no no, i said he wants me to do everything legal, pass smog legally but afterwards put a test pipe in place of the cat, i really dont see the advantages of without one. (louder?)

And i think your mistaken with somebody else about the girlfriend.

what are the advantages/disadvantages of a cat (besides its eco-friendliness)

 

There aren't really any advantages of not having a cat unless you 1. are making tons of power, 2. need to make tons of power, 3. are turbocharged, or 4. use nitrous.

On an N/A B16A2 engine, import tuner did a test and the test pipe only gained 1 HP over a high flow catalytic converter. A negligible difference at the cost of breaking the law. I think it gained 3 HP over a stock cat. You can't even humanly feel that difference.

Plus, CHP is really strict and if they pull you over and look under the car and see the test pipe, they'll give you a ticket and you will have to fix it and go to the state ref to prove you fixed it, or pay a huge fine and not go to the ref. And then you can get pulled over subsequent times and go through the whole process all over again if you don't fix it.


Louder is a DISadvantage. LOL

Raspier exhaust tone is another disadvantage.