Removing Catalytic Converters. Why?

Question

Why do people remove the catalytic converters on cars? Other than making a car sound like a lawn mower, what are the advantages of this?

I know they do it because supposedly it increases the horsepower of a car or something.

I live in Florida where the annual vehicle inspection is not mandatory so they don't have to worry about that.

Answer 1

removing the catalytic converter from the exhaust system of an automobile takes away some restriction of air flow. The gasses must exit the exhaust in order for a vacum to be created and fresh air to flow in the intake side of the system. The oxygen in the fresh air must be present in order for combustion to take place. Quite simply stated "air out faster equals air in faster". However putting air in faster does not necessarily result in better performance. Most of todays computer controlled systems are optimized to function with the converter in place, removing it often kills performance. Not to mention the additional harmful emissions the vehicle will put in the air we are all breathing if the converter is removed.

Answer 2

Removing Catalytic Converter

Answer 3

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RE:
Removing Catalytic Converters. Why?
Why do people remove the catalytic converters on cars? Other than making a car sound like a lawn mower, what are the advantages of this?

I know they do it because supposedly it increases the horsepower of a car or something.

I live in Florida where the annual vehicle inspection is not...

Answer 4

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This may have been true when catalytic converters were first introduced, but many improvements in technology and engineering have been made since then. Your engine and its emissions control system were designed to operate with a catalytic converter installed. Removing it may not improve your performance or economy. In fact, in many cases, the opposite is true. Removing your cat system may actually hurt your fuel mileage and will definitely effect your vehicle's emissions. If you live in a city, state or country where emissions checks are mandatory to renew registration, then removing your catalytic converter will make it impossible to renew your registration.

Answer 5

NOx are far more potent greenhouse gases than CO2. Leave the cat in. Doubt you would pass MOT with some weld-up bit of pipe where the cat should be. Nitric acid corrosion will also rust the welds and drop the back box on the floor while you're doing 70mph. You would also have to re-tune to actually get the benefit - may not be possible with a modern EMU.

Answer 6

Some idiot and his idiot "friend" I know tried to mess with a cat convertor and the car burned to the ground on the side of a road one weekday afternoon. Insurance guys almost didn't pay for some of the car because they suspected foul play related to the cat. But they eventually did pay some of the balance due on the car and the guy had to eat the rest--like 6000.00. This was back in the day before gap insurance and when cats had just come out and everyone hated them. "Ain't no gov'ment going' to tell me what to do with my harmful emissions," and all that crap. I still remember those two.

Answer 7

if you were to get headers and like a catback system or something, you would want it off. it's basically a muffler. it does not increase horsepower by taking it off, it very slightly decreases it because you're loosing backpressure. taking it off is definitely a good idea if you have any kind of performance exhaust situation, not in any other situation....there are going to be people that this question pisses off and they're going to tell you it's a bad idea because "i want me kids kids to have oxygen in the ozone layer when they're born"....f#$% that! take it off if you do anything to your exhaust. i had a ford escort zx-2 back in the day (hardly a speedracer) but i got headers and exhaust put on professionally....it made it quite faster because i had an expensive flowmasters muffler and gave it a little more of a rumblin sound but i was not happy, i wanted some quality noise. i took it to a shop and they set me up with a removeable catconvert so for inspections (every 2 years here), i'd be able to have someone put it back on but man, when it was off, i loooved my car. it sounded good....oh...i eventually had to take that muffler off that (mufflers do exactly what their name is, they muffle sound) so i just had it straight piped all the way back from the headers and my god, it was loud and sounded high quality from pretty far away and close.

Answer 8

It helps because it allows exhaust to leave the engine more efficiently, lowering backpressure. Although most foreign cars need more backpressure than people think.

Engines are like a human body. They perform better when they recieve more air, and get rid of waste faster.

Think about if you were breathing out through a small tube. It's not so easy to do. Add a bigger tube, and you're able to breath more efficiently because you can get rid of the CO2 faster.

Answer 9

anything u put in the way of the exhaust creates backpressure in the system, the less backpressure, the more power, thats why people straight pipe their exhaust, you do get more horsepower out of your car, you dont make it sound like a lawn mower until you take off the muffler, the cat does nothing more than dcrease the polutants, any restricted airflow throughout ur exhaust is bad, if u have to much ur engine will stop running, choke, sputter, etc.. the only real reason to take ur cat off is if u have a performance vehicle whether it be street race, or off road power, if u take the cat off of a newer car the engine light will always be on because there is also a sensor with it. but basically ur engine is pushing out the bad air as it takes in new air, if it doesnt have backpressure, then its easier for the new air to come in, thats all

Answer 10

There is really no change when a catalytic converter is removed except for the unburned exhaust gases do not get burned. Also, it required by the U.S. EPA that all motor vehicles must have those converters. It is a $10,000 fine fi anyone is caught removing them. In all states that do state inspections, any vehicle without a catalytic converter is a automatic failure.

Answer 11

cats are designed to create very little back pressue and there is no reason to take them out un lesse you have a free flowing system where the pipes are wider from the manifold back, and most of the time you wouldnt need that kind of system unless you car had a highly modified forced induction system like a tubo. backpressure is a very miss leading tear most people(like me b4 i was traind as a mechanic) they think of it as pluging up a tube, it doesnt wokr like that. it works like this: when you have smaller pipes or some resistance the air moves at a higher velosity. this helps in the head of a n/a car becouse it then draws more freash clean air into the combustion chamber which equals more tourq and better fuel economy. bottom line dont do it unless you plan on doing heavy mods to your car or if you just want to sound like your going fast(aka posser)