Guitarman97

Soo i have a 2003 mustang gt and i've been really looking at getting an o/r H pie for it, but i already have the stock H pipe it came with and i have 4 cats on it. So if i cut off all 4 cats is it the same thing as an offroad H pipe???

dawson1112

If you cut the cats off of it , in texas you will have to get it inspected eventually and it will fail. Don't screw it up by cutting the cats off.

Essentially an off road h or x pipe is for track only use and it is not emissions friendly because it has no cats. There are other factors as well since most after market o/r pipes are designed much better than the stock ones.

I would not consider a stock pipe with the cats missing an off road pipe, I would consider it a hack job. This is what it looks like when someone tries to cut out the cats and piece together the mid pipe . I bought my car like this and immediately replaced it all with a aftermarket x pipe and new down tubes.

school boy

Also, the factory exhaust is 2 1/4 while most aftermarket is 2 1/2. Off road h-pipe's aren't a pocket book breaker. Be smart and not hack up that factory mid pipe.

Guitarman97

My plan is to get an o/r H pipe and keep the cats off for a year until inspection time comes around and then i'll put high flow cats on there!!

Guitarman97

[QUOTE=school boy;8412861]Also, the factory exhaust is 2 1/4 while most aftermarket is 2 1/2. Off road h-pipe's aren't a pocket book breaker. Be smart and not hack up that factory mid pipe.[/QUOte


Thanks for the advice!!!!!!!!
Appreciate it!!!

dawson1112

That's the way to do it, keep that stock H pipe for when you need to have it inspected. The mid pipe on these cars is really not to hard to swap out if you have 2 of them that fit properly, and the use of stainless hardware makes it that much easier to get the bolts and nuts loose.

Nightfire

You guys are forgetting one vital piece of info. Emissions testing is not longer done via a sniffer, its all through the OBDII. Once you start your car up without cats, you're going to throw a code. You need to clear that code and complete a certain number of "drive cycles" to bring the O2 system back into "ready" mode. Even if the code is cleared, the emissions system in your OBDII will still read "not ready". The inspector will see this and fail you.

Putting the factory H back on will do nothing.

I have had an O/R H for the past 5 years and pass inspection every year because my emissions system reads "ready" when the inspector tests it.....even with the O/R H down there.