Hello everyone!

Recently I've decided that I would like to change my exhaust to the Tomei Express Ti cat back exhaust. I was also thinking of going with high flow cat's while I'm under the car anyways.

I was looking at the Kinetix VQ35DE High Flow SMOG Legal Catalytic Converters on z1 motorsports. I've done a little bit of digging and a lot of people seem to recommend them. I just wanted to get some final opinions before I pull the trigger.

Thanks!

 

Ive got berks sitting in my basement, they seem fine, haven't put them on yet because my exhaust is what nightmares are comprised of... If your manifold bolts look anything like mine (im pretty sure yours are much better than mine) you will want to keep your stock cats as long as you can.

Anywho if you can wait a few more months they go on sale for black friday, if you really just want to swap while your working down their go for it... I would go with berks over the kinetix but im sure any high flow cat will be an improvement.

 

Just a simple, "Good luck with bi-annual smog check."

I see you're in CA....where there are NO smog legal HFCs. They may indeed - like many others - pass a sniffer but won't pass visual unless the tech is half asleep

If you don't mind the hassle with R&R'g them every two years then you're OK.

 

I know, the joys of CA Smog... I don't mind having to remove them every couple of years. Though I'm hoping they can pass the sniffer because there's enough smog places around me that if you slip the guy an extra $20 you'll pass visual. So hoping to pass sniffer, but if not I can just swap them out.

 

I've got kinetix's. 600 miles with no cel. I occasionally get rasp with my exhaust (short tube headers, hfc, Borla true dual) but it's completely random and I can't pinpoint how to recreate it. Seems to occur when everything is cold. Once it's warm it sounds fine. Surprisingly they aren't any louder or quieter than the test pipes I was running. Just no rasp or cel.

 

keep your eye on the kinetix... i had the passenger one crack. when i called them for their "lifetime warranty" they wanted me to take it off, put whatever i had back on (what if i didnt have the oem's) , send it to them to get welded (not even replaced) after going back and forth for a bit they told me to just take it to a local shop and have them welded.... after that i took them off and sold them... their customer service and warranty is shiite.... will NEVER recommend them to anyone

 

Very happy with my Berks. Might wanna keep the stockers in case you need to pass emissions, like Mic said.

 

You could go stealth and take the stock heatshields off the stockers and weld them to the HFC's. I may or may not have done that for someone in the past.

 

One thing I'm not a fan of is they don't reuse the crossmember support the stock cats have. My test pipes didn't either. Seems kinda stupid to not weld on a $2 tab so you can bolt it to that and make the system solid.