Re: Clogged cat?

[ti@amb.org (Ti Kan)]

Wm. Josiah Erikson writes:
>     I also know that every car that I have taken the cat off has created a
> noticeable change in:
>     high-end power
>     throttle response
>     cool sound (IMHO)
>     gas mileage
>     From personal experience, I find find it beneficial, wise, and even
> enviro-friendly to remove the catalytic converter from my personal
> automobiles. Therefore, I do so. However, I don't condone everybody doing
> it and I'm not saying that you should do it to your car. In the state I
> live in, it's perfectly legal to remove the cat from any car manufactured
> before '85. For instance, my GTI.

Josiah,

Enviro-friendly to remove your cat?  On what basis do you make that
claim?  Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's good.  If removing the
cat is really that beneficial then why would you not condone others to do
the same?  Maybe deep down inside you know it's not a good idea?

I have a modded 4000 and for a short while I ran with a "test pipe" in place
of my cat.  It does make more noise and perhaps there is a small increase
in power, but I began noticing nasty yellow-ish soot on the rear end of my
car and immediately the cat went back in.  No more soot.

You may not care about the air that others breath, but it's also the same
air *you* breath too.

BTW In older cars you can often replace the cat with a more modern high-flow
unit and get virtually the same performance benefit as having no cat at all.
I would feel a lot better to know that my added power and economy does not
come at the expense of the air that I breath.

-Ti
96 A4 2.8 quattro
84 5000S 2.1 turbo
80 4000 2.0
-- 
    ///  Ti Kan                Vorsprung durch Technik
   ///   AMB Research Laboratories, Sunnyvale, CA. USA
  ///    ti@amb.org
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