Well I am about to do an exhaust on my 3.8 1996 Camaro. I am about to get a Cat back flowmaster system and I was looking for a high flow cat. This car has the Y-pipe and cat as all one piece. Besides the high price no one makes a Califonia emission cat conv for this car. I have 2 O2 sensors one before the cat and one after it and the distance is about 19.5 inches with, I believe a 2.5 dia pipe. I found a 2.5inch 19.5 long catco cat but obviously it would not be Califonia legal since it wasn't ment for this application. I cant remember if the old cat has weld marks between the two sensors or not but I was wondering if I can get away with the visual insp if I weld in this Catco converter. I know it will pass emissions but I dont know if it will pass visual. Anyone try this before and anyone know if it passed or will pass? Does anyone know the dia pipe the cat itself is for sure? Thanks ~ Erik

 

I believe there are new OBDII/CARB cats available.

At least thats what a shop told me when I called a few months ago.

 

Look up Carsound OBDII compliant cats. Carsound is a marketing brand for Magnaflow. Follow the link in my sig if you need more info.

 

Just looked up that carsound one... it says exc Califonia OBDII. When looking at the picture I see why... it doesn't have the spots for the 2 O2 sensors. I did a search on yahoo before and coundnt find one mad by anyone..... they all are not for Cali emissions. So back to my question, does anyone know if I could get away with welding a universal fit one in place making it look stock.... will it pass the visual insp? anyone remember if the orginal cat is welded in there in the first place? and is the cat a 2.5 in dia?

 

I bought my 2nd Carsound a little over a yr ago and it states OBDII compliant on it. I've went to smog stations and nothing ever happens. This is my 3rd cat.
1st one I changed in Dec 2002, it was a universal 3" one. Then it rattled 9 months later. That's when I changed it to a Carsound. But it kept having this slight rattling sound in there that I just couldn't take so I bought another one a yr later and changed it for the hell of it. No probs passing any test here in Cali.

 

Thanks guys, I just looked back at carsound and found that the universal cats (46000 series) are OBDII compliant and california CARB # 50 state legal. I didnt even think at looking at the universal ones since in California they are hesitant to pass something that is not in the orginal form and not made as a stock replacement. I went and bought one from summit so I'm all set. Thanks again