I'm thinking about adding a high flow cat to my car to help tame the noise some and to reduce the raw fuel smell to make the car a little more liveable on a daily basis. with a decent size cam'd 383 (230/242 111LSA; 12:1+ CR) would there be any issues with this?

 

If you've got too much raw fuel dumping into the exhaust, it's going to burn on the cat, the cat is going to overheat and be melted. First you need to get the excess fuel under control. I would also assume with an engine like that, you would be running duals, and would want two cats.

 

well it's not the result of a rich condition just the fact that I'm running dumps with no cats which causes the fuel odor

 

I run an open loop tune, with 78# injectors. Cam is a 230/242 114LSA solid roller, so it doesn't have as much overlap as yours. I ran dual 3" CarSound cats for a couple years when it was a daily driver, with no problems. Its the overlap that puts fuel in the exhaust.

 

yeah I was worried the overlap might cause immediate problems for the cats with fouling. I understand it will have a shorter lifespan than that of a vehicle with a stock cam. thanks for sharing the personal experience Fred, gives me some hope that I can run a cat(s) without any short term problems.

the car doesn't see alot of miles but I just want to be able to cruise down the beach or where ever without watching everyone plug up their noses or getting a headache if I get stuck in traffic. I enjoy driving the car too much to make it into just a track toy, so I'll be willing to sacrifice some hp for the sake of practicality. I drive the car alot more than I actually race it so that's my main reasoning.

 

I would do 2 high flow cats (sprial style, not honeycomb).