Civic owners w/o cats, what's your setup?

[acura_el]

hey,

i just bought a 2pc. 4-1 header with a testpipe and was planning on getting it installed this weekend. now the issue i'm having is with the O2 simulator. i was talking to a friend who drives an RSX w/ a race header and he said he had problems with the O2 sensor throwing off his check engine light cuz the sensor was going in too deep, so he had to get something called a Spark Plug De-fouler (or something like that) to fix this.

1. has anyone had this problem in a civic, or if u drive a civic w/o a cat, what's your setup?
2. how much do O2 sensors normally cost?

sorry if this is a silly question, but i'm still a bit of a n00b when it comes to tuning

car in question is an 01 acura 1.7el (based on Civic EX)

thanks in advance

[gpomp]

you should get a cat

[acura_el]

what im thinking about doing is leaving the testpipe off for now and getting a high flow cat later on, but if i put the test pipe on right now it's gonna end up removing my cat

i donno if i wanna risk driving without a cat, i gotta give this some thought

[rc2002]

The CEL is coming on because the primary and secondary o2 sensors are reading the same A/F ratio. If you don't mind the CEL then you can drive like this at the sacrifice of fuel efficiency.

I personally would never remove the cat. It smells, power gains are minimal, it makes your car loud.

[acura_el]

Originally posted by richardchan2002
The CEL is coming on because the primary and secondary o2 sensors are reading the same A/F ratio. If you don't mind the CEL then you can drive like this at the sacrifice of fuel efficiency.

I personally would never remove the cat. It smells, power gains are minimal, it makes your car loud.

hmm, that's a good point. i'm probably just gonna end up leaving the testpipe out cuz i dont want the car to be loud. that was one of the reasons i got a quiet exhaust

and if the gains are minimal, its not worth the hassle of getting a ticket

thanks dude

[dj_honda]

Originally posted by richardchan2002
power gains are minimal

on a naturally aspirated vehicle

[FivE.SeveN]

thx for not killing the environment


just 'cause it's not illegal to run catless doesnt mean you should.

not like it'll matter on a civic anyway.

[88CRX]

All the DC5 and EP3 guys that run race headers dont have a choice. The race headers reaplace the entire cat.

I had a clogged cat on my CRX and removing it did give power gains. However, it was frickin loud.

[B20EF]

I don't run a cat in my civic and it's annoying as hell. It stinks badly, kills the environment and the sound is
extremely raspy. It's embarrasing to get on the throttle. I'm putting a cat back in my setup as soon as possible.

[acura_el]

thanks for the comments guys

i think i'm just gonna leave the cat in for now and get a high flowing one later. i dont want my car to be loud as hell and i dont wanna risk getting a $350+ fine

i'm actually getting both header and exhaust installed tommorow, so we'll see how it goes

[Lo)2enz0]

i am running no cat on my 240sx and DAMN she is load. but its flows awsome.

[dallas23]

typical O2 for a civic is about 289.99 at leat mine was.

[95civicgsr]

dc 4-2-1 headers + 2.5 inch straight pipe.....decently quite until v-tec kicks in

[Tha VZA]

my winter car stock never came with a CAT...lucky me!!! loud and proud

curious...what's the inlet/outlet of your cat on a stock civic exhaust system...

ciao

[acura_el]

^^i'm not too sure but i think the inlet is about 2" (i may be wrong) and the outlet is 1.5"....it's really skinny, if u look at the stock exhaust tip, it's probably about 1/4" thicker than that

anyways, here's the update:

i got the whole exhaust system installed and the only way the header would fit is if the testpipe went in or i had another one custom made...which means i ended up having to take out the cat.

the stock O2 sensors fitted in place and there was an extra outlet for an o2 sensor on the header, so the guy just plugged it with a bolt - problem solved the CEL doesn't even come on

as for the smell, it's really not as bad as my buddy's rsx, you can't tell unless you're standing behind the car....and for the noise, it's surprisingly very, very, quiet...just the way i wanted it. the testpipe has a built in resonator and the exhaust system has another one, the noise cancellation is excellent and it's just a little louder than stock. when you're riding inside, it's so quiet you can't even tell that it has an exhaust

but, now i have a problem with clearance. the header is rubbing against the frame of the car so i need to get that fixed

[JordanEG6]

I don't have a cat in mine, because the collector on the header is very long and isn't flanged. I have 2 resonators and the motor flows great isn't loud at all. but it all depends on the set up i guess. mine was okay without a cat. but i recommend that you get one, because its there for a reason

[acura_el]

yeah i was planning on leaving the cat on, i'm probably gonna get a high flow one soon and have it fabricated into the testpipe...i just paid for school so i'm kinda broke and can't afford it right now