dabenzu

i have come across what they call a test pipe resonator on ebay advertised as follows:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Honda-S2000...sspagenameZWD2V

. it looks as though it replaces the cat converter??? could someone explain to me what the benifit of this is. i have a standard 00 model - stock pipes which i want to keep on the car and i have a K&N FIPK induction kit fitted.
is it worth me fitting this in place of the cat converter or is it a waste of time.

dbzerk

Its done to free up power as cat converters are restrictive. Its only really used on tracks as the fine for having no cat while on road is HUGE...

RedRover

Hi dabenzu, I had a look at this on the EBay site.

At $69 US + shipping it seems to be good value. What it is - is a "pretend" catalytic converter. It would provide a small (probably very small) increase in power and a small increase in noise. You would need to do before and after dyno tests to see exactly how much difference it makes.

Before fitting such a thing you need to be aware that if your car ever gets checked by the police, and you are unlucky enough to get one who can tell the difference, you will get a defect notice and a large fine.

So (I'm guessing here) a potential one percent power gain for approx $100 sounds like a good deal. You have to make your own decision about the risk of being caught.

RedRover

dabenzu, over the years many people have tried to improve on the standard exhaust system but nobody has yet been able to do it significantly better than the Honda engineers. Efforts have been focused on both the headers (Spoon & Mugen) and cat-back sytems (See Aus's thread - "Now I'm single"). Here ... https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showt...0&#entry4080601

Clearly the cat itself would be the first thing to go if your car was used exclusively for track work. There are a zillion threads on exhaust mods in this Forum and a bit of searching will uncover a lot of info.

Two alternatives you might like to consider are .......

1) Buy an after market catalytic converter (a real one) that has a much larger diameter than the stock one. I understand that such a thing may be hard to find and that the larger diameter may not necessarily result in a better flow if the design of the cat is not in tune with the rest of the system. It could possibly have a negative result - you'd have to dyno test to see.

2) Take off the stock cat and place it in a large vice-like solid fixed position. Use a heavy sledge hammer to ram a large diameter crowbar through the cat to create a straight-through flow.

The big disadvantage of this method is that if you do get the dreaded defect notice, then apart from all the fines and other costs, you will also have to fork out big bucks to buy a new stock cat from a Honda dealer.

Perhaps the best approach to this method would be to see if you can get a used cat from a wreckers and do the bodgy modification on that. I'd also recommend before & after dyno tests to see if it really does work. I'd also consult a mechanical engineer to ensure that the resulting change in emission flow does not cause damage to the engine. You'd also need to have no conscience about the environment.

dabenzu

thanks heaps for that - i,ll be doing the dyno and i,ll post the result
cheers dabenzu

ExoticCarSite

how'd this go?

wilch

No cat = upwards of a $10,000 fine.

evangelo

if u get pulled over chances are no cop is going to know just by looking if you have a cat or not
and on the odd chance u get a cop that actually knows something, he has to prove it, and to prove it you have 7 days or something to go to an rta inspection bay so the car passes the usual tests
and by that time u have your cat back in place

.............................and some steel wool stuffed in your exhaust if your aftermarket

Vuey

i like the way you think

Beaver

Dabenzu if you are in Sydney i wouldn't mind trying to catch up and have a listen to your FIPK?

Let me know.

Thanks