Originally Posted By: BuickGN
Originally Posted By: Drew2000
If removing/modiying the cats would cause such a big improvement in HP and gas milage, why wouldn't the mfgs. incorporate changes to the emmission systems to improve HP/milage as a selling point?
Seems with the cut-throat competition, no modern car engineer, esp. sporty cars, would leave that much HP and milage on the table.
Kinda like the old "car companies are holding back the 100 mpg carburator", where any rational business would pounce on the money making potential of such a break-through.
Drew
Emissions compliance overrides power and mileage. With convertors my car has ULEV status. Without, it's a gross polluter.
Do you really think a 1200 cell convertor haning off each head is not restrictive?
I second that - when you remove the cats, you'll notice these things are very heavy pieces of metal that are welded right to the exhaust manifolds, which are the most crucial passages for airflow in the exhaust system. Then when you look inside of the cat and see how much metal is in there, you'll know you've just taken the cork off a champagne bottle.
If that guy's 3.0L Accord can make that much power, I can't imagine how much you could get with your TL...then again, you already have yourself a pretty nice toy to satisfy the need for speed with that Buick