i am gonna guess thats its a small discaimer incase a turbo goes to pot.

i say you can run them, it might only marginally mess with the lifespan of the turbo(s). I say run the cats when you need to pass a sniffer test, then replace with testpipes the rest of the time.



I also went straight out the back when i turboed my other car. the most flow is always best for a turbo. any lil backpressure puts stress on the exhaust side, which can mess up the whole turbo over time. But if you absolutely need some cats in there, a metallic HFC is fine to run IMO. other problems should show their ugly head before a blown turbo when running 150+rwhp over stock.

 

i see now. i'm still a noob in the FI department Thanks!

 

Without cats, you can run leaded fuel (VP16 is the ****) and really turn up the boost, assuming the block can take it.

 

I think leaded fuel is still bad for the O2 sensors...

I'd be careful running leaded fuel...

 

im amazed how this car looks so close to stock even on the underbody and instead packs an extra 150whp, looks like someone just added a few intake pipes and a custom exhaust and thats it....

 

The recommendation for not using HFC orignally came from Fast Intentions and from GTM. The thought is the cats would start clogging over time (from melting?). It may be possible to put one further downstream, but that is another project for someone else. FI also mentioned the possibility of using a platinum cat, but it would be big $$.

As far as I know, CA does not have only a sniffer test for emissions, but also a visual test which I'm certain this setup would not legally pass, so I may as well leave the TP on there.

As for running leaded fuel ... IMO, why bother with the trouble of finding it if you can make more than enough WHp (unless big numbers are the goal)? GTM just got their shop HR to about 580 WHp at 14 psi on pump gas ... using UPREV. More than enough power for me from a stock block.

 

I would not worry about the visual Terry, your setup is so stealth they will not be able to tell the difference. Also they do not look under the car either, so no worries there.

I think if you were able to put a cat on there at some point you will probably breathe pretty clean as well.

On a lighter note you have quite a while before you have to deal with smog...so have fun with it, and congrats again on it finally being finished.

 

Yes leaded fuel is not good for O2 sensors. You can run it from time to time but if you do it a lot you will kill them.

IMO the best leaded fuel for the money out there right now is VP Q16. Many are seeing 3-5% more power than C16 because Q16 has more O2 in it and is made to run better in lean conditions. It is also the same price as C16.
Only drawback IMO is you can't find it as easy and you can't run C16 on a Q16 tune.

 

Terry if you are running test pipes you will be able to smell the difference. I would bet that any decent inspector will be able to tell your car doesn't have cats on it. I would look into getting a set of cats that can be bolted in for inspection time.

If it's like AZ you can test once and if you fail you get a free re-try.

 

Leaded is bad for the O2 sensors, it makes them laggy and slow to react. However, if you are only using it at the track a few times a year, it shouldn't have any long term effect.

As for making enough power, once you have the mod bug, its never enough. Why stop at 14psi, why not 20, etc. I run my DSM to 28psi on c16 but only 18-20 on 93 pump.

Q16 is some kick *** stuff but isn't ~25 a gallon?

Bottom line, looks like your car is quite healthy, enjoy!

 

I only paid 13.80/gal for Q16 ($138 for 10gal). it was the same price as C16 when we did my race tune.

I agree the mod bug is crazy! I thought my car was so fast when I first got it. Then SC... too slow. Then TT.. weeeeee..... too slow. Now built TT daily tune is 13-14psi and 20 on race gas. No idea what's next. This seems pretty damn fast.

 

Seems like the power is easy to get ... the trick is hooking it up. Sorry, unlike you, I only have stock internals, so I'm not going to turn up the boost anytime soon. Maybe internals after I recover from this phase ...

 

I want a q16 tune

 

any idea how much boost/hp the internals can handle??

 

so who's next in line for the GTM TT kit?