What exactly is the difference between the $400 HFCs and the $300 ones? I see that one is metallic, and the other is stainless steel. But are there any performance, sound, or quality differences between the two?

I'm slowly losing interest in test pipes as I hear talks of foul smells, low end TQ loss, CEL-lights, rasp, etc. And after hearing that HFCs will still make power within 2WHP of TPs is making me reconsider.

Thanks, as always, guys.

 

well test pipes don't give super gains anyways so every extra HP will help.

Smell is very over rated. You smell the car everyday anyways. It's not like it's so over powering or something. Some people are just really sensitive about things like that. Most modified turbo'd cars don't use cats at all and i don't see anyone complaining with them.

Rasp is very over rated as well. When used with stock exhaust, not really raspy. When used wiht the nismo exhaust, it can be raspy. That's why people go with resonated ones that quiet it down a bit. Rasp is very overrated as well.

Cel lights can be fixed with non foulers which cost 8 bucks. Easy.

 

+1 ^
hf cats are probably the best way to go, just more expensive. I noticed a pretty big difference when I went from stock setup to tp and td exhaust.

 

The $299 ones are ceramic. The $399 ones are metallic. They are both made out of stainless tubing. The cat itself is either ceramic or metallic. Metallic will flow better than ceramic. If you are staying NA then ceramic will be fine. If you are going FI then metallic is the better choice.

I ordered a set of ceramics about 3 weeks ago from Berk. The ceramic cats are on backorder from Magnaflow. Magnaflow is the manufacturer of the cats that Berk uses.

I went with ceramic because I don't want my exhaust to be too much louder. According to Berk, metallic will be about 20% louder than ceramic. Test pipes will about 60% louder than ceramic cats.

Basically, metallic cats will yield almost the same power gains as test pipes but without the downsides of test pipes. Ceramic will do the same but won't be as loud and may make a couple less horsepower.

 

I ran high-flow catalytic converters. Replaced them with test pipes.

Lesson learned: Should have went test pipes in the first place.

 

Thank you, Beeker. That was precisely the answer I was looking for. I may likely end up going with the Ceramic HFCs then.

 

why did you switch davidv?

 

I had Kinetix high-flow catalytic converters. One developed a rattle inside. It was loud and embarrassing.

 

I had Helix v2 TP's, and suffice it to say that it was quite embarrasing. The rasp was very annoying but the DRONE, the drone was unacceptable at crusing speeds.
I switched to BERK HFC's (ceramic) and could not be happier.

Good luck!

 

by drone, do you just mean it was loud inside the car that made it uncomfortable? like a constant hmmmm noise?

 

^not sure if I could say it was a humming noise.. Drone is well, drone...

 

yeah, im tryin to figure out what exactly drone is. I have test pipes and TD and its loud but i like it, it is what you would expect.

 

Drone is when the exhaust is making like...uhh...a vomiting sound, almost. You commonly hear it most riced Civics.

 

Difficult to describe unless you experience it. Noise comes from the back of the exhaust. That noise “resonates” inside the cabin. At a constant RPM the drone is constant.

 

got ya, I think I know what your talkin about.

 

Perfect description.

 

so drone with test pipes and no drone with HFCS?
i ordered the greddy evo2 with the berk hfcs so i assume this was a good choice guess ill find out next week

 

i got the metallic HFC on my car, with no drone

 

So how about the Crawford HFC's? I've been hearing about the Berks and the Crawfords.... Any significant difference? Also, will these throw a CEL?

 

I just paired up my Borla TD w/ some Fast Intentions Res. TP's. The smell is there but it's not like you can't stand it. My gf didn't even notice the smell. As for drone/rasp... there is none. The only new noise is a deeper/louder/more aggressive Borla TD sound. I can't be happier w/ it. I went WOT for the first time since the install today and suffice to say... it was bad ***. The only thing is the damn SES came on... I have non-foulers too. Going to try to reset the light, then reset the ECU to see if it will help.