Getting rid of my flowmaster and getting a hooker cat back. Since the emmissions police are coming next year, I'm going to put a cat on. Only thing, are the hi-flow units worth the money or should I just go with an OEM from GMPartsdirect?
Thanks

 

I went with a carsound hi-flow and it was worth every penny of the 40 bucks I paid for it.

 

Carsound
http://www.installuniversity.com/ins...n11.122001.htm

 

You really needed someone to tell you to go with a higher flowing aftermarket cat huh? lmao!

 

the quality of o.e. cats are so far ahead of the aftermarket that the comparison is really not useful. there may be something "hi flow" out there that shows some sort of cfm improvement but lets see the numbers after 10k miles lets see the exhaust gas readings too. there is a reason that good cats cost and there is not much of a way around it-platinum-oe cats gotta stand up to 100k of use these days. there isnt a standard i am aware of that aftermarket cats must meet, nothing like original equipment standards. plus the oe cat can take more air fuel ratio abuse and still live thru it. spend the extra cash.

 

I agree with grumpy... the aftermarket cats don't have the longevity of factory equipment. Platinum is the key ingredient in a cat. You can't make it inexpensive and retain all of the platinum. Factory cats are subject to extreme abuse and will last much longer.

Depends if you want longevity or a few cfm.

 

Yeh dude, I'm a barrel of F'ing laughs right? Just what I needed, a reply that contains absolutely no helpful content at all. For future reference, no sense=no reply. To the others, thanks for the info. I've heard of the longevity vs higher flow debate before. I have 90,000 miles on my 98 Z71 and that oem cat is just fine. I would have better piece of mind going with a factory one anyway. I'm not as interested in grabbing a couple hp as some others are. More in it for comfort and dependability. Have also heard sometimes the after market one doesn't fit exactly right and hits/vibrates. I see it as just not worth it. I don't want to have another cat put on in 2 years or less. Now, anyone have the GM part # for a '94 cat, so I can look it up on GMPartsdirect.com for price and availability?
Thanks alot

 

www.newgmpart.com has it for 445.21. The list is over 500.00. The only thing is they don't have any part numbers. You have to pull it up by make and model and it's under exhaust. If I had the money I would have gone with OEM, but I didn't. My choice of carsound was for economic reasons. I could give a rats a@# about the extra HP. I have had it on for a while and have had no problems.

 

$445 for a o.e. cat!! Man, that is a lot of money. If money isn't a factor I'd just go with the aftermarket one. I put on longtubes and put 2 cats on(car sound) because of cost and I've heard they get pretty good mileage out of them. I don't think you can beat the longetivity of an o.e.with a $40 cat(I paid $32), but it depends on how long they last and the total cost of a o.e. cat. I figured 2 cats $60 and even if they lasted only 25K's, then I'd spend $240 over 8 years and 100K's. Well see though....

 

my oe one lasted until 98k, and for the last 30k I've had a 'high-flow' dynomax one on there, no problems so far, and it was much cheaper of a cat, maybe 180 or so?

I would get aftermarket or buy a used/private seller one if you really want to stay o.e.m.

edit: my car passes emmisions with flying colors easily (redundant? ) and wasnt any real fitament issues, i beleive it had to be welded though

 

Sorry dude...I didn't mean to be an ***...that was just the mood I was in that day. Anyhooo, when my car was completely stock, my cats were replaced under warranty. Now I don't know how the y-pipe is set up on 93-95 cars, but my y-pipe was set up in 2 pieces and the cats came as an exhaust assembly. In other words the factory cats are not simple weld in replacement pieces, I simply got a new y-pipe with new cats built into them. This is why I say go with the aftermarket cat. By the way, my car is a '97.