what the title says. give us your story on happen and what was the result for having no cat.

 

I've read horror stories on the NorCal and SoCal boards. Fines can exceed $2k and you're also subjected to periodic checks with a state smog referee for months after being caught. It's not worth it in California. Get a nice downpipe, 3" high flow cat and 3" cat-back setup. IIRC Ultimate Racing makes a nice 3" HFC that looks OEM. Don't risk all that headache for 3hp-5hp.

 

If you have a cat you can't spit fire...

I guess i'm a ricer, but I love spitting fire..

 

i have the helix hi flow cat, would the poo poo give me crap for that. looking underneath with all that glitter makes it look like a straight pipe. I may want to go through ultimate racing hi flow cat because it looks like the oem.

 

You can do that WITH a cat too if it's important to you.

 

Just take some cat heat shields off, put them around the test pipe. Spray all of your piping black if possible. The less conspicuous it looks, the better.

Only prob is, it isnt too easy taking off the the heatshields around a cat. Something I need to look into.

 

Or just get an electronic diverter valve that mounts inline your exhaust before your cat, at the push of a button you can dump your exhaust out before the cat. Works great, I had one on my other car. I used it for noise reduction.

 

didn't look too hard eh https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=214763

 

well, I think you cant remove the original cat until after 50K miles...then you can replace it with the bigger one legally.

 

I think you can remove the old one before that if "it was not working properly"

 

I thought this thread asked what happens when you get caught without one, not how to avoid getting caught.

I got randomly pulled over one night on Rt. 1 right down the street from UMD campus. Cop was following me for about 2 minutes before hand. Came up to the window and straight up said "Son, I'm gonna ask you once before I look under the car, do you have any catalytic converters on this car?" I said no and he gave me some lecture about how he can give me up to a $225 fine and is it really worth the 2-3 hp gain that I got from it, and why I didn't just get hi-flo cats. I could tell the dude knew something about cars. Pretty sure my car was running really lean because I have a bunch of intake and exhaust mods with no tune, and my buddy always told me how bad my exhaust smelled. Apparently it was enough for this cop to notice. He gave me a $50 fine but no fix-it ticket and sent me on my way. I put my catted H-pipe back on the next weekend just in case. This is in Maryland btw.

 

i got pulled by one dumba$$ umd cop and thought i had aftermarket exhaust which i didn't have...he wrote me up for a different citation instead hahahah

 

Good story. Sounds like the cop was pretty cool, all things considered.

To the original poster - Seriously though is it really worth it to break a federal law and spew all kinds of toxins into the environment for a few HP? Just get a hi-flow cat.

 

Well you figure he went out of his way to pull you over. He had to write ya for something. It is all in how you treat them when they pull you over. Trust me I have allot of personal cop friends here in Florida and they tell you to be polite. It goes along way.

 

I dunno about Evo's but with my mustang, its not all about the extra power. My exhaust sounds so much better without the cats. My original midpipe came with 4 CATS on it so you can imagine how restrictive that was. I put on longtube headers (same effect as a tubular manifold for you Evo guys) and an o/r H pipe to get rid of the stock cast manifolds and cats. Exhaust is much louder, meaner, and does a ton of crackling and popping on decelleration. Sounds like a real mustang without the cats, and I'm sure it frees up more than just 2-3 hp.

Also, the difference is price is phenominal. You guys just have a tiny 18" pipe or one cat to buy. My shorty catted H-pipe was $400 bucks new, while the same size o/r pipe is only $165 new (which I got for $115 on ebay). That is almost enough to make my $50 ticket and a few toxins in the air worthwhile. It's kind of funny, when I drive next to a prius or echo, I just think about how my exhaust and mileage is completely cancelling out their clean emissions and good mileage