Well, I've got Flowmasters on my car, not sure exactly what model. I'm getting rather bored with the sound, but money's tight. Is it possible to hollow out, for lack of a better term, the cats?

My logic is thus: By retaining the location of the O2 sensors, a new tune won't be necessary (I don't have a tuner, period). But, without the fiberglass baffling in the cats, they should be less restrictive. If anyone can tell me why this is a bad idea, please, by all means, school me on the no-no's of catalytic converters.

Thanks,

Eric

 

Anybody out there..?

 

Well Im no expert but if you live in an emmsions state that will probably fail you. As far as I know if your O2 sensors are turned on and you do anything to the cats without a tune you will get a CEL. I could be wrong tho. If you dont live in an emmisions state just save $200 and get an O/R H or X. You can actually get one for less that $200.

 

To avoid the CEL, could I just get some MIL eliminators? I read that they don't make them for the S197's, but that Ford hasn't changed the O2 design from the previous gen. The reason I ask, I stumbled across this How-To..

http://atomicinternet.homeip.net/tea...asp?RecordID=8

I'm not trying to squeeze every bit of power out of my car, so if I can save 200 bucks by doing something like this, then that's $200 I could put towards a tuner. I guess this is just a temporary fix, I'm just looking to change things up without spending much money.

Eric

 

Yes, you can hollow out the cats yourself. It's illegal to tamper with them though AND you will not pass emissions inspection(if state req'd).

Personally I'd say spend the $150 or w/e for a pypes h and then you don't have to worry about emissions b/c you'll be able to readily swap back and forth. It is also nice in case you want to quiet things up a bit...sometimes the noise gets too loud for commuting. I can attest flows and no cats is VERY loud. It's also very raspy which some do not like. I would say IMO stay away from the X, it's way too raspy. There are some who like it but their numbers are few. Here's what I think to be one of the better flows&o/r pipes out there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUbehg36vy4

 

I don't think there is a such thing as DIY hi-flow cats. Hollowing out the cats is really making it an o/r midpipe. As others have stated, just buy an o/r h. And like Vista posted, stay away from an o/r x with your flows.