Installing my RK-sport (same as Arizona speed & marine) mid-length headers and I am trying to decide what to do with the catalytic converter.
I currently have the Borla cat-back with all the exhaust going through the muffler.

If install a straight pipe (no-cat) will it sound rough and raspy or undesirable?

Also if I put the cat back on should I just buy a new one, the OEM one has 75K on it.

Is the carsound cat on Ebay any good?

I would like to leave the cat off but I want it to sound good.
Thanks all

 

I had nearly the same setup on my '97 (SLP shorties, no cats and Borla) and it sounded terrible with no plate in it. It was raspy as hell and just sounded like ****. If you run a plate with a small hole in it, it will sound OK, but that kind of defeats the purpose of the Borla catback. I ended up switching the Borla out for a Flowmaster catback and a cutout, and I was much more pleased with the sound. It's all personal opinion though.

 

I do occasionaly run the plate with the small hole. I never run it wide open.
Anyone else run the Borla cat-back with mid-length headers and no cats?

 

I have the RK sport headers and Magnaflow cat-back. I have ran it with no cat and it sounds awesome at idle, but when you are on it, it sounds like total crap. Dont eliminate the cat.

 

Catalytic converters are not there to hurt the sound or performance, they are there to help the enviroment. So no, keeping the cats, IF they are working properly, will not make it sound horrible. As for performance, well it can be argued both ways so I'll stop right there.

 

Tree huggin' Hippie!!!!
No cats and a cut out =

 

I've run AS&M headers with no cats through a medium plate borla. It sounded a little raspy at idle, but nothing horrible. AT WOT it was terrible though, there was a lot of high pitched noise. Im now running dual random tech cats with the medium plate, and it sounds decent.

I still think the sound was about perfect when i had shorty headers, stock cats, and the medium plate borla.

 

Some of us have smog to pass






















But I don't

 

I used to have the AS&M, but generally the principal goes for all exhaust setups. If you don't wanna sound like crap, use a exhaust that has a muffler. I went from a flowmaster with offroad pipe to slp lm with offroad pipe. At ideal the lm was crap, where the flowmaster sounded pretty good.

Any kind of straight exhaust is going to sound like crap at ideal (and possibly while cruising).

Also hooker is not a bad exhaust to consider with this. A guy i know runs some shorties and hooker with an offroad pipe and you can hear a little lope in their from the stock cam.

 

I thought mine sounded 10x better before gutting the cat on my previous setup. (mac mids, cat, hooker catback) Just my opinion, and no, Im not a damn tree hugger, I just think mine sounded like poooo!

 

I have AS&M headers running into an ORP and then into my SLP 2OTL. Quite possibly the best sounding combo IMHO. It's really not too loud either, which is both good and bad, sort of...

 

RKSports mid lengths are AS&M? How much $?




I'm going to run the cat, I don't want the soot buildup on the back of the car... Plus why the hell not, it's not like a high flow cat really creates much of a bottleneck, I'll do my part to help the planet.

 

I have RK Sport, SAME AS AS&M, and I paid 450 dollars shipped. I thought it was a sweet deal. Anywho, those with a gutted cat, flowmaster cat back. It sounds so sweet! I love the sound. Deep througty sound, and at WOT still sounds excellent. At first I would get a lot of popping, but I got a tune and its gone. Just make sure you are not running fat, otherwise the excess gas explodes in the gutted cat and tings and sounds like a piece of donkey sh*t. But, very pleased with mine. But, Those shorties blow for performance, so I am getting some pacesetter long tubes as we speak. I hope she still sounds like a can of whoop a** ready to be opened! Also, I have an electric cutout that will be installed, for the times when I need to make a ricer **** his pants and scurry back to mommies teet. muuhaahaahaa! :-)
~Cody

 

I must be stupid...What is running fat?
The AS&M's are not considered shorties are they?

 

Running fat = running rich, aka too much fuel.