I just put test pipes and y pipe on my car.... at first it was fine, just smoked just a little bit when you rev it. after two days it began to smoke like Hell. now it smokes bad when I take off and when I am driving....I thought that it was just running rich, but to me it smells like oil. has anyone ever had this problem? and as far as I know, changing the pipes cant fry the rings (unless it got ring washed???) I really would like to figure this out.... I dont like driving my Z around and it smoking like a piece of crap. also actually seems to have less power.

 

What brand test pipes and y-pipe? Are they brand new? No leaks?

 

What recourse do you have emission tampering is a felony violation of the Federal Clean Air Act.
The personal mechanical concern is that tiny piece of precat honeycomb get sucked back into headers and exhaust port damaging rings due to a change in backpressure from deleting the cat.

 

How many miles total since the install? It can take up to 100 miles to completely rid yourself of the smoke. Oil is used in the pipe bending process, so you are probably seeing that burnoff.

 

its been probably 400 miles since I put them on..... it didn't smoke right away, now its smoking a lot. It never smoked at all before I put the test pipes on.

emissions, there arn't any emissions testing here where I live in WA state...but I am sure it is a violation of the Federal Clean Air Act, hmmmmm

precat honeycomb?? there are honeycomb in the exhaust manifolds????

is this a common problem with Zs???

I think I am just going to put my cats back on....but I am trying to figure out if for some reason there has been permanent damage done to the engine??

 

It generally is burn off, but keep in mind that the Cats are designed to burn off exhaust borne impuritys which may they be Blow by, or unburnt fuel (Rich)

If it persists, check it out. It may be a problem that was there, but wasnt seen till the Cats were removed.

Ring/cylinder wash is caused by excess fuel (Rich) delubricating. There will be black smoke, If its oil it will be more bluish and of course water....White

 

BTW---The Cat Drops did NOT damage your engine, if there was damage, it was pre-test pipe...IMO

 

see thats what I figured, I figured the only way it could damage the engine if the o2 sensors were getting non cleaned readings and compensated by running richer (ring wash) or leaner (fry rings) could actually damage the engine. Thats why I figured that I would try and find out on here if it that was a common problem by changing the cats.

The reason I dont believe it was a pre existing problem is because it didn't smoke untill I drive a few hundred miles after the cat removal.

I just put the cats back on, I'll go for a drive and see how it looks....if smoking continues then I know some sort of damage happened and guess the next step is a comp. test.

hhhmmmmmm...... wonder if my warranty will cover this