Is there any reason I shouldn't buy a used Berk HFC? In looking at one for $150 with 10k miles on it.

 

No reason to not buy it I can think of but a new one is about $225 shipped to your door with all the new bolts, nuts, and gaskets.

Depending on the condition of your OEM cat it may be hard to impossible to get off. We ended up grinding the spring bolts off a buddy's system to fit this cat a couple of weeks ago but mine came off after soaking the bolts in penetrating lube several times over a couple of weeks. In both systems we didn't need to remove the cat from the mid pipe as we were replacing the complete exhaust system from the header back. Good thing it all came off in one piece as I was unable to remove his cat from the system with a rattle gun later. The bolt locations on the aft flange are hard to get at with the cat on the car. The Mighty Car Mod guys just popped their exhaust off -- didn't work for either of us!

Cat swap may require a new front end gasket from Honda (about $25) if yours is in bad shape. We didn't need one on either of our cars.

The right floor board in the car gets uncomfortably warm with the stock cat and all the heat shields in place. Indications here are it will be much worse without the heat shields and may get hot enough to melt the carpet. We put the OEM shields on the high flow cat which required welding tabs on them.





-- Chuck

 

I am still amazed at how clean that looks! I bought one used also. Just had to order my own gasket because they usually fall apart after the first use.

 

Could a muffler shop add the tabs needed to attach the OEM heat shield?

 

I would not buy a used HFC that came from a boosted application, they don't last long on boosted setups when running overly rich and hot.