I was thinking about taking off my cat and strait piping my '97 3.8 Camaro. What do you think. Will it sound like a POS, also what about the o2 sensor. I heard from some people it will just throw codes and wont matter while others said it could effect the computer and be bad for my engine. So, what do you guys think? Also how hard of a project would it be? (I have little mechanical experiance)
-Thanks AJ

 

Well it will sound a lil bit louder..Yes it will throw codes...it can be bad for your engine cuz it takes away backpressure which over time will wearout your valves

 

You can get emulators that you plug into the o2 sensor connector.

 

The whole back pressure thing is BS. The engine does not need or even like the cat. You do not have to switch to a pipe you can just take the cat off and run a long bar thru it about 217 times and dump the remaining dust out of it and put it back on.

Car WILL be louder so depending on the exhaust that might be a good thing or a bad thing. Mine has headers, gutted car and a flowmaster cat back. It sounds mean at idle but it is has a drown sound when on the highway.

You can buy a oil foul spark plug adapter and install it in the O2 sensor that is after the cat. It will back the O2 out of the ehaust stream enought to not set the code.

 

That oil non foulers is hard to find. All the parts stores i went to dint have em. fiy first thing they do when they pull over a camaro where I live is check for cats and its a BIG fine.

 

Engines don't like back-pressure!!! Running the engine with no manifolds at all, bad for the valves. The reason is because when the engine is shut off, the sudden change in air temperature (cool meeting extreme hot) can warp the valve stems. It's not a wearing out problem. On a computer controlled fuel system car, running with straight pipes is no problem for the valves. We can get into the whole thing about why that "myth" exists if you want to.

 

Get a high-flow cat like a Magnaflow, that is, unless you like raspiness...

 

OK well then i guess lets just leave it up to him 2 choose what he wants to do then

 

Oh California how we hot rodders hate you. Its one of the reason why I gutted my Cat. Here in PA we are required to have a Cat and they scan the computer for codes once a year. Mine took 2 months before it set the first code. I just clear it the say before.

Installing the cheap($90) universal Hiflow Cat on a Camaro requires some fab work. The bolt in Hiflow cat is about $400.