The stocker should get you there . I am sitting around 400whp with the stock exhaust/cat with a 12psi Vortech. No smell or soot on the bumper . I am however giving up some free power . Its all good though . I have been tempted to put on a test pipe for a quick dyno pull but i don't know if it's really worth it .

 

Love the sweet smell of E85 and a straight pipe.

 

Berks HFC is metallic (not ceramic).

I know someone that has gone through 4 of them so far (8psi supercharger) once as little as 1200 miles

once you try test pipe, it's hard to go back. As there's no middle options that are reliable. OEM or test pipe

 

I guess I'll try the stock cat then.

Honestly I'd rather lose 20whp than have my wife smelling like gas and cleaning by bumper with simple green twice a week.

Maybe I'll do a tune on a test pipe and stock cat and report my results.

 

I should post that i did have an issue with my hfc. the bolts actually blew off once (all three of them, i was redlining i heard some metal and screws and then heard my car get super loud)

I went back to BERK (local) and talked to the owner who is a customer of mine, and asked him about it. he said if it happened again i should try to upgrade to a 70mm HFC to relieve the pressure.

i never checked inside the cat to see if it clogged or is messed up.


If I switch to a TP do I have to get a retune? my tuner lowered my vtec to 3k and tuned me for a hfc.

 

Yeah a little simple green on the rear, but honestly you have issues if your smelling fuel, or worse smelling on you after. A tp just isn't that bad with a properly running and tuned car. If your burning oil, well thats a seperate issue, you will smell it. But mostly at a stop, its everyone else behind you that gets the joy.

 

I had a couple of the Berks. Total crap. There are highflow ceramic options out there if you go to a custom shop. They can be expensive but as far as durability, as long as it is a quality piece and your tune is good ceramic is fine. Mr old MR2 turbo plugged its catted downpipe after 100,000 miles and it was ceramic and shoved right up against the turbo. Same deal on my new BMW. Some people will tell you ceramic's will not hold up to the heat (yet we put ceramic tiles on the space shuttle for re-entry) which is not true. As long as it is not a $50 ceramic you can get one that has lots of flow area and is quality construction.

Will the HP be lower than a test pipe? Yes, but I just prefer to be legal and not stink up the road for people behind me. Still sorting out a tune with my tuner that was running 10's at highway cruise and I felt like I was going down the road farting in everyone's face.

 

Anybody have an idea where to get a high quality cernamic cat? I could have a local fabricated weld it in for me.

 

Hytech Exhaust... Ask for a Renault cat...John claims that they flow really well and are of OEM quality.

http://www.hytechexhaust.com

Got to "Honda" at the bottom of the page and click on "Renault". It will show a picture of what it is.

Another pic... http://www.team-integra.net/sections...ed240cf2e9.jpg

...just FYI...

 

Keep in mind, all the stuff coming out of the exhaust that smells like crap is not exactly good for your health. Unburned hydrbocarbons, NOx, etc. The job of the cat is to turn that harmful to your health stuff into harmless carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water. To keep the EGTs down and make the cat last longer, you have to run richer A/F. Basically fuel cooling.

Also, you can probably tune for a test pipe and put a cat on and be okay, but not the other way around. Going from the cat to a test pipe will change the volumetric efficiency of the engine and make it run lean. Depending on how lean the turner goes with the A/F, it could grenade your engine.