The DOHC ATX neon is the heaviest and slowest out of all the 1st gen neons.

 

Well thats kinda cool As slow as it is, its still faster than another kind of its generation. Good to know I dont have THE slowest 4dr auto neon

 

As long as your in the US it is against the law to remove the catalytic converter on any car that originally came with one and it's a Federal law which applies to every state. As was mentioned, it is even illegal to remove or replace a properly functioning catalytic converter, but then again how are they gonna know the original one didn't actually go bad. That is just one of the many stupid laws they made that cannot really be enforced.

Your best bet would be to get a good high flow cat since your car has that many miles on it. The high flow cats will free up horsepower and fuel mileage that the stock cat restricted and it only takes about 1 horsepower away versus a straight pipe and keeps you legal too. You can get them for between $60 and $120, so it's not a wallet breaker like the stock replacement cat is.

 

wait

so what exactly are the gains of a high flow cat?
and which one is the best to get?

 

LOL, dude....... 71RoadRunner just explained the benifits of a high flow cat. Look above for answers.......

 

he said you gain horsepower

but then he said you lose horsepower

...?

 

"The high flow cats will free up horsepower and fuel mileage that the stock cat restricted and it only takes about 1 horsepower away versus a straight pipe and keeps you legal too."

What about this do you not understand?

 

i just wasnt paying 100% attention

sorry!! hahahah

i dont get a lot of sleep in college so im always half awake...

 

Is there any way to test the cat at home? I mean, instead of "unwelding" it from the tubes to look through or anything, is there a flow test? I suppose I would get a CEL for low catalyst efficiency or something if it was bad though right? I think im just gonna leave it. The DOHC muffler will be improvement enough, but I dont know if I can justify 80$ purchase to POSSIBLY free up 1mpg

 

Generally when a cat is bad it will make the exhaust smell like rotten eggs. Another way to check it is a night, run it on the freeway and pull off to the side and look under the car at the cat, if it's glowing red then it's plugged which is why it's getting that hot. There is also an O2 sensor at the back end of the cat which lets the PCM and you know when it isn't functioning properly or if the catalyst is gone, but it won't show up if the cat is plugged. If you have 200K miles on it then you should replace it, because it is costing you in the long run by reducing your fuel economy which adds up quickly at these gas prices.