I am definately going to buy a Superchip soon, but i also wanted to take off all of my cats and weld in a straight pipe, or just hollow out the old ones. What i wanted to know, was with the Superchip, would i need to mess around with my O2 sensors? I didnt want to have to buy dummy O2 sensors, and i would think the Superchip could override them.

Mike, or anybody with this experience, can you please help??

Thanks!
Rick

 

Um what about smog laws? In California you would be arested for even saying that.

 

Well that wasnt my question, but to answer your question, i dont live in california. I live in a suburb of St. Louis Missouri. And my truck is registered at my lake house which is on Bull Shoals Lake close to the border of Missouri and Arkansas. Basically, i will never need to get the truck emmissions tested. Even if i got a ticket for not having cats, they make you put the cats back on instead of pay $$$. Most of my friends have taken off the cats on their cars, they have never gotten a ticket, and i think its BS that the exhaust looks different with out them, so how would a cop even know, he would have to be so suspicios as to look under the car. Thats why you just hollow them out.

Anyways, my question was, does the Superchip eliminate the need to install a MIL filter on the O2 sensors?

Thanks for your help!

- Rick -

 

Rick,

I do not condone cat removal but if you insist I would recommend getting rid of the OEM system and using a straight pipe. If you take a close look at the OEM cat you will notice that the chamber opens up to allow gas to flow through the honeycombe. If you remove all of this material you will have an empty chamber that will disrupt the flow of the gas. If you just hollow it out to the dia of the 2½ pipe you will cause even greater turbulance. How much Hp do you think you are loosing through the cars?

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

 

Well, more turbulence would be created if i just hollowed them out. But that does get me thinking... What i might do if possible, is take off the cover to the stock cats, weld in a straight pipe, and then weld the covers over the pipe so they look like cats.

But really, im not concerned with such a small amout of power, this is mainly for sound. I have read that with less back-pressure, i could see a slight loss in lowend torque. This doesnt bother me too much because i dont tow any large loads or anything like that.

Anyways, thanks for the replies!

- Rick -

 

Hi Rick,

In short, please don't do that, as there are actually much better ways to get more power AND to make your exhaust loud too, without polluting the air for everyone else.

If you remove your cats, you will get a check engine light (if the O2's are functioning properly), as the O2 sensors will know that and report to the PCM, which will then throw a check engine light once this condition exists long enough, which will remain on, until you replace the catalytic converters.

While it is true that I *can* turn that off in the Superchip, I will *NOT* do that on any vehicle driven on the street. Period. I have to breathe, too.

Besides, it's illegal in all 50 states, the emissions laws are *Federal*, not state or commonwealth. The only thing the states control is what their individual inspection procedure is, they all still have to adhere to the exact same federal emissions standards. There is NO PLACE in America that you can legally remove or gut catalytic converters on any 1975 or newer vehicle that came with a catalytic converter(s) from the factory.

If you want a LOUD exhaust on the cheap, that's very easy to do.............just cut out your *muffler* & replace it with a straight pipe, making the cats function as both cats *and* mufflers. That will get you plenty more LOUD, and it's a much better thing to do than remove catalytic converters & pollute the air for the rest of us.

Of course, the best thing to do would be to replace your factory cats with Magnaflow high-flow units, we carry them here at Performance and you only need 1 on each side to replace the 2 factory units on each side. That will reduce backpressure from 7 PSI to just 3 PSI, *and* will also be significantly louder too, even with the same muffler & exhaust! You'll still be cleaning up the exhaust properly, and it isn't that expensive to do.

Please, everyone, FORGET about completely removing your cats, or gutting them, etc., as that just pollutes the air for everyone else. Bad chu-chu...................

I hope this info helps you, & good luck!