Originally Posted by VegasJones
Okay, I ordered a test pipe to replace my cat and the consensus seems to be that I wasted my money and should have just gone with a hi-flow cat because the test pipe will make me lose power, or at least torque. So here's my stupid question of the day. How come not having a cat doesn't affect older cars or non-import cars? Exhaust uses the same principles if i'm not mistaken no matter what vehicle it's on....so I guess I just don't understand how getting a less restricted flow through the exhaust could be a bad thing. Catalytic converters haven't been around forever and to my understanding are only an emissions device and that's it. I know my first car, a 61 Chev p/u didn't have a cat, it just had the pipes right back to the glass packs.
Again, i'm not arguing any facts what so ever, just trying to get a straight story...Thanks
Some one can correct me if I am wrong...
Hondas don't have much torque to begin with. When the flow is increased, the backpressure is decreases and torque decreases. The little torque you had is diminished because there is little to no backpressure. A straight through design is not good for a Honda engine without much torque to begin with unless there is a reason (turbo, high flowing N/A). The stock exhaust also flows better on a Honda than it does on any domestic car, so no cat on one of those doesn't make much difference. They also have a lot more torque to play around with. Couple this with the CEL and ECU limpness, and you got a stinky, polluting, slower than normal car.