Catalytic Converter - can I take it off?

[DOUGGN]

almost every pre-obdII car I've had I have gutted the cat or put a test pipe in place.

If you swap out the cat for a test pipe will boost stay the same or have to be re-adjusted?

 

[Red C5]

They get stolen quite a bit here too but mostly on Toyotas.
Removing the cat is not for everyone, it might make your car drone quite a bit on the freeway and you can smell unburnt fuel as well.

 

[bison]

In CT a stock LC2 cat converter is worth $110 in scrap. It is illegal to remove i and use the vehicle on public roads. People have been removing them since 1975 when they first used them and ive never known anyone getting arrested for it. Leaded fuel will destroy the catalyst very quickly. Unleaded race fuel is not a problem. The stock cat converter will flow a lot more than almost any cheap aftermarket cat. Additionally it will light off faster and burn more emissions than any cheap aftermarket one. There isnt much hp in removing one if the car is making less than 350hp potentially. There is a greater transient response from the turbo making it feel like more power. The car will be quicker with no cat vs running one. Contrary to the bs that "engines need backpressure to run properly" its not true. if it was the quickest and fastest would have cat converter on them. The factory emissions system may require backpressure to work correctly but for high performance less is always better.

 

[mc71454]

Will the O2 sensor or anything else have problems if I removed my cat and run leaded race gas ?

 

[earlbrown]

Leaded race gas will kill an O2 sensor regardless of if you have a cat or not. The Denso units see to be the most lead resistant, but it will still get fouled.

 

[Buick Mark]

Look into one of the vendors here for a straight pipe w/cut out. The cat is a huge restriction, you'll notice a difference!

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Anyone familiar with the random technologies high flow cat?

Yep, I am. Dave Emanuel, [he owns Random], and I are good friends.. We have done many tests w/ the Random Hiflow cats...Most ususally, we saw was 3-6HP loss.
My Stage Gn had 1 on it, and a dump pipe...5RWHP was the norm closed vs open.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Yep, I am. Dave Emanuel, [he owns Random], and I are good friends.. We have done many tests w/ the Random Hiflow cats...Most we saw was 3-6HP loss.

The most frequent issue w/ any cat on a hipo car, turbo'd or not, is someone mucking around w/ the tune, and overheating the cat. Many come back for "warranty" as an empty shell, cooked black. Screw w/ the tune, the COT settings, etc, and it's going to happen.