Will removing the cat on my 95 Z28 make the Service Engine light come on?

 

No, it won't.... not on a 93-95.

 

Do they sound good with the cat off?

 

If you're thinking of getting rid of the cat, just replace it with a pipe instead of gutting it. Gutting = bad sound. Pipe = good sound.

 

Had the cat removed, it was about half way stopped up from the looks of it. Had it replaced with a 3" pipe to go with the rest of my 3" catback. Sounds the same as with it on but louder. Sounds good.

 

I gutted mine, the sound is in my opinion better, except for the partial throttle sound, just sounds like air. Eventually I am going to put a straight pipe on with a cat sleeved over it for visual inspections. As already stated, on a 95 you'll have no problems.

 

I didn't see no need in gutting mine, we have no inspection here. So just had it removed and replaced with a pipe. Sounds good, better than I expected.

 

What about on an 02... a friend of mine had SLP long tubes and loudmouth put on minus the cats and now his SES light comes on... is it because of no cats?

 

What year is his car.

 

2002

 

OBD-II (96 and newer) will set a code for no cat. You need to use "O2 sims" in place of the after-car sensors to eliminate the problem.

 

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that removing a cat is a federal offense with fines that can reach five digits...

 

You are 100% correct.... illegal to remove the cat(s), relocate the cat(s), change the number of cats, or replace a cat that is still under warranty unless it can be proven defective. The enforcement of the Federal law is left up to the individual States. Some enforce it, others don't.

 

We have so many big deisel trucks around here. The big Duramax and Powerstrokes. I don't believe removing a cat from a Camaro is going to do as much as one of these big trucks to damper air quality.