I toasted my cat last year with a fireball (fouled plug + SC). Bought a used cat off another s2ki member, but had a test pipe on in the meantime.

I swapped back to the cat this weekend (because of the stink factor).

Impressions on being back to OEM cat: less throttle response, less power, less of the hollow "waaaahhhhhhh" noise, much less stinky.

I have to say, the difference was significant (CTSC + 7psi). I miss the throttle response and power, but I do NOT miss the smell.

 

i know exactly what you mean. before i was supercharged, I had tp+exhaust and i put my stock cat back on in order to sell the tp, and get some money for the supercharger. the car felt much less responsive in midrange. you can really tell the difference while accelerating, esp. on the freeway

 

Took off my test pipe yesterday (for stink factor) and can already feel the difference.

Same impressions here as CKit

 

how bad is the stink? and where do u guys buy your TP from? i've seen so many with TP that is throwing a CEL on their S

 

its fairly strong, but you get used to it i know i have, haha. you can find testpipes all over the forum, there are usually quite a few being sold in the For Sale section of S2Ki all the time. many of them also have the CEL-fix, or extended bung, which delete the CEL so it doesnt show up.

 

i dont notice that stink so much....maybe cause ive had test pipes on all my cars and ive become desensitized to it.

 

I noticed the smell for maybe the 1st week, now I am completely unaware of it

 

Unless your standing behind the car, your not going to smell the "gasoline" smell.

Otherwise, you'll get a random wiff of it when the wind is going in the right direction, otherwise you'll hardly notice.

 

I don't notice it in my own car, but driving behind someone with a testpipe smells bad.

 

I don't remember much of the stink. For the response? I was at 7 psi, then upgraded the pulley, installed tp, header..so I don't know the response difference but I am sure there would have been some.