Hey, ok, maybe this is an inapproporiate question, in legal terms, but in minnesota it's legal to not have a Cat, so i think mine is clogged possibly, and that might be why by little sport coupe is hesitating when i mash the throttle. OK here's the question, will removing it give me to little back-pressure and harm the motor, or will it set the check engine light off and cause problems, or will i be happy with the results of removing the cat?? I'm not sure because i hear that removing the cat on these 4 bangers harm them because of lack of backpressure. Just curious cuz i plan on doing something with it either putting a high flow cat on or just removing the whole damn thing, which i LOVE to do on V8's First time owning a 4 banger and i'm not sure you guys prolly know. Give me some feedback. Thanks

 

i thought no cat was causing mine to run doggy, ended up being the fuel pump, my race car runs great with no cat, downstream o2 sensor gone & 2 1/2" straight pipe, my daily driver runs fine with no cat and the stock 2 1/4 exhaust, i dont think you would have any problems, does your engine like to rev or **** out at high RPM, thats a dead giveaway if it plugged is high RPM power loss, both my cars pull strong right to the rev limiter

 

i loved not having a cat on my old r/t...alot louder off the header....it doesnt hurt them...my brother told me that it would, but it didnt

 

Open up the exhaust too much and you can lose torque.

 

FIX IT TICKET!

or that just might be in CA....

 

so with a stock motor other than a 3 inch intake and regular cat 2.5inch exhaust 3 inch dual tips am i losing torque?? and would i gain anything by removing the cat

 

I wouldn't say you are losing torque, and no you won't gain anything by removing the cat.

 

a lot of hondas lose power because everyone gets thoughs huge exhausts



dont be like a honda driver and do that

hahahah

the stock 2 1/4 to an aftermarket 2 1/2 is go enough with a free flowing muffler

 

It is not legal anywhere in the US to remove the catalytic converter if the car came equipped with one from the factory. Some states may not require emissions testing, but this does not make it legal. It is also not legal to alter/remove any emissions controlling devices that are not CARB approved or legal in your state. You will most likely never be checked or ticketed for such things so long as your state does not require emissions testing, but it is always a possibility and you can get ticketed for it. The 2 1/4" stock exhaust on the Neon's is optimally sized for the engine, so removing the catalytic converter will not hurt the cars performance and will in fact help it. If you were to put a larger exhaust on it and remove the cat you would hinder the performance on the low end and decrease it's torque, but it would gain a slight bit in horsepower at higher RPM's. Smaller engines need some backpressure to keep the torque up, but larger engines make far greater torque and don't need the backpressure.

Anyone behind you can tell if you don't have a catalytic converter, they tend to blow a little smoke under acceleration, especially heavy acceleration, and you can smell their exhaust which has a very strong bad smell, unless your running race gas which smells heavenly.[sm=gears.gif]

 

neons dont like race gas much either, maybe a gallon or 3 just for the smell, although i hear the lead is rough on o2 sensors and plugs cat's up pretty quick