These things look great. They'll pass a visual, i'm 90% sure. Looks like an OEM part.

Won't waste time with nonsense, on to the review you want to hear:

[Installation]:Weighed in these at exactly half the weight of the stock cats. Approx savings of about 10lb. No major problems with the install. Getting to the bolts on the stock one was a little tricky. I wouldnt do it on jack stands or ramps. Install went smooth. The set I got seemed to be sitting a little too close to the heat shield above. Took about 2 hours but we were taking our time. Can definitely be done in less than an hour.

[Sound]:First impression: "ummm, I guess its louder." Definitely can smell something cooking. Added a db or two to the sound of the borla. To tell you the truth I was a little dissapointed -- but I didn't realize something. The secret here is time. About 2 hours later, drove the car down to meet up with some buds. After I left, wow. The sound changed. To tell you the truth I wasn't really buying the "break in" stuff. Now, a few days later, it even sounds better. It's AMAZING because its subtle and sounds right.

I'll go straight ahead and say if you want a loud, attention getting exhaust, get kinetix test pipes and the Injen SES. If you want the right sound, the right tone and feel like too loud is embarassing, buy this right now. It's perfect.

[Performance]:"Butt Dyno" is something i don't really put much stock in. A product could make you lose low end torque causing the curve to be more drastic and the "butt dyno" would tell you your car got faster.

Again, when I first installed it. Didn't feel a thing. 2-3 days later, theres an obvious change.

I'm pretty confident that it feels like it pulls better 3500 and up. Below that, no difference. Moderate torque increase in lower rpms..... higher gears push better at lower speeds.

Dyno pending.

Cons: Only one. There was a rattle sometimes at idle. The cats sit really close to the heat shields. I got under there yesterday and used a crobar and bent the heat shield up a little where it was touching. Seems to have fixed the problem. Spoke to lsdunique, he says he's fixing this.

Overall: If you've been looking to get cat replacements. Get these 100%. The price is right. Thats unless you're into loud & raspy test pipes that you might have to swap out for emissions.

Also, didn't cause a CEL.

Ok, ok, this thread is worthless without pics, I know. So here we go.

Installed:






Sound clips will be posted here tomorrow.

 

Nice review

 

Good Review. I see that they retain the stock bracket. That's a big plus. I wish Kinetix test pipes did the same.

Dan

 

Looks like if they could provide more room between the converter and the heat shield they would be nice..

 

Homestar is awesome, *serious*

 

did you replace the gaskets or did the originals still hold up? (and how many miles on them then?)

 

Thanks for the review, Very informative. Do you have headers installed also? Or just the cats and exhaust?

Chris.

 

Looks good! You said it was close to the heat shield but in the pics it looks like it is touching the car. That is something I would be very worried about since a catalytic converter get VERY hot...

 

wow that does sit very close. i'd be afraid to see what happens when the engine torques.

 

I think it's only touching the heat shield. Not the worst thing that could happen. I wonder why they used such wide cats.

 

all_bark: reused the old gaskets. ~15k miles on them.

ChrisM: no headers, I don't think i'll ever get them. Worst hp/$ ratio mod. I'd rather put that money towards a SC or turbo setup. It seems like cams + headers installed = 80% of FI costs at 10-15% the gains.

As for possible problems with it sitting so close: The rattling is gone and I don't hear any contact being made.

 

i do like the OEM look for sure....just curious if remounting those might get them away from that heat shield a little more...if the dyno shows competitive gains i'm sold

 

We have already made the changes to the JIG to allow for extra clearance so the heat shield won't be a problem on future cats.

ZXsaint actually received our very first pair of these so we could get his feedback and make any necessary adjustments.

 

So are these test pipes or high flow cats? Will it pass smog check? & last, how much are they?

Thanks

 

if these are confirmed to pass smog, have a little more clearance and show decent gains i would like to order a set lsdunique...thanks

 

if these produce anywhere around 10rwhp, add these to my plenum order... it'll be nice to get my CF strut bar, plenum and cats all in the same shipment

 

I'll be getting a set in a couple of weeks and plan on doing before and after dyno's. Of course I will post for all to see!

 

As promised, sound clips!



Not the best quality... It's kinda windy out and i'm using a laptop's soundcard to record these flyby's. I didn't do any standing revs cause who does that anyway? But if you guys want them, I'll record them when I have time.

Clip1
Clip2
Clip3

 

Oh they sound so nice, especially with the addition of the Borla TD! I guess they're right about the borla TD sounding more like a muscle car / V8.

Do you experience any problems or issues with your exhaust?

 

wow, that really sounds great