Removing Catalytic Converter?

[blkfordsedan]

Doesn't the MIL illuminate and set a code for no cat on your '04? Cats are only there to burn the unburned/partially burned exhaust gasses. Performance should not be affected either with or without a good cat. The only thing you'll notice is the brown stuff in the air around your house. Either way the Festy doesn't care. Do you get smog where you are? Phoenix does and we all know about LA.

I have an '04 as well with an aftermarket catted X-pipe. Even with that, the high flow cats are not effective enough to keep from tripping the MIL and throwing a code every few days. You can either buy a set of $20 MIL eliminators (basically resistors) that plug into the O2 sensor, or in my case, my SCT tuner allows me to turn off the rear O2 sensors.

[Pu241]

The main reason the cat is there, is for the robber barons who control the worlds South African platinum supply to get richer.

Bavekozak, festiva converters, especially replacement converts do not contain Pt metal as the catalyst.

[bobstad]

More dead brain cells; cured in Berkeley!

A few years ago, the same shop which installed a 1 7/8" straight pipe from the resonator behind the cat; insisted on installation of a second resonator, instead of running a straight pipe from the cat back instead-when there was enough leakage again to make me feel ill inside.

That place, Allied Muffler & Brake on Gilman in Berkeley; told me that without the resonator, the car's computer wouldn't function correctly since the necessary back-pressure wouldn't exist as before, required to make the computations of the computer accurate enough. I've always found that straight pipe good for what seems a significant, if not too great an improvement in gas mileage; which like the second resonator, came from a sudden leak causing me to pit there when exhaust fumes were overwhelming enough to make me sick.

I can't hear any difference in the sound of the exhaust, though a significant one; I was able to notice one day hauling three Peoples Weekly World red sidewalk newspaper boxes from Berkeley to Eureka when I had the hatchback door roped down, on top of the ends of two of them inside-with the third tied to the roof with a pair of wooden strips underneath protecting the paint. That was amazingly loud; so I'm glad I've still the receipts for the work done in the glove compartment, in case I'm ever stopped.

One of those sidewalk newspaper boxes, was last seen in Arcata, CA in the row of sidewalk newspaper boxes in the Union Center shopping mall next to the large Safeway there; which was being used to distribute an anarchist newspaper. What happened to the other two boxes is still a mystery? The old Peoples Weekly World is now Peoples World, an exclusively on-line periodical of the Communist Party USA.[http://www.peoplesworld.org

[NTRCOOL]

This is Good info I was thinking on asking the same question. Thanks.

[blueoval]

i hollowed mine out and bought new stock exhaust from auto zone runs great it's, better to take cat off and run a rod threw it instead of replacing it with a smaller pipe that chokes the exhaust.that's my 2cents but has worked on every car that i have ever tried it on

[bravekozak]

Bravekozak, festiva converters, especially replacement converts do not contain Pt metal as the catalyst.

What elements are used as catalysts in a catalytic converter?
Answer:

platinum is the most predominant element in catalytic converters along with palladium, rhodium, cerium, iron, manganese, xeon, nickel, and copper

Everything you wanted to know about catalytic converters but were too frightened to ask.

[bobstad]

Bavekozak, festiva converters, especially replacement converts do not contain Pt metal as the catalyst.

Duh, dumb question?

Long time since I learned amongst certain types, there is such a thing as the table of elements; though in my dealings with life, not yet too important a thing to learn a great deal about...while left to presume of many others they may be even more ignorant.

Thus, I'm wondering here if by Pu241's reference to "Pt metal" that means platinum? While also wishing for better communication if so; or clarification if not. Like they say, if wishes were horses beggars would ride; so probably my deep rooted subconscious desire for a hay burner type to befriend and care for me-instead of all this complexity, about getting around otherwise. The reason I trouble to ask...though even with the damned horse; I'd still need the Festiva.

[drddan]

Sometimes they check to see if its still there on a Drive Clean inspection. Most performance enthusiasts just have it bored out inside. Catalytic converter present. Check!

X2!!!! My cat was like under $50. As soon as I got it, I cored it out. Sounds awesome! 1 3/4 pipe from there, back to a walker dynamax muffler. Its quite when rolling on the hiway, and between my carb, and that cored out cat, you KNOW when I get on it!
This all on a B6 engine.