Rep Power: 0

im planning on getting an aftermarket header and downpipe from ebay for cheap and also doing a cat delete. i have a cat back exhaust of off a friends car that will work.

my question is will i actually loose power due to not enough back pressure? ive heard that the engine needs the pressure.... im not sure.
also by doing a cat delete i head that the car will have an undesirable raspy sound. is this true? and how can i change the sound. the cat back exhaust is 2.5 in tubing. fyi.

any thoughts would help....

 
Rep Power: 215

If your going to buy a header and you do not want a cat then buy a race header. It is one piece and is designed for its very purpose. I have a race header on my ep3 with the a catback exhaust and gained bout 27 whp. It will be more than the gains that you would have cause I have a k series.

 
Rep Power: 367

you might loose torque in lower rpm, not power

 
Rep Power: 210

im runnin a dc sports 4-2-1 race header and a dc sports cat back exhaust on my 01 civic ex. d17a2 engine. the header deletes the cat an makes the car sound raspy above 4k rpm. sounds nice down low though. yes u will lose tq down low but the gains in power up top r decent. my .02 is buy a decent header an down pipe an a good hi flow cat. i believe random tech is the popular cat on this forum. that combo plus a good quality cat back exhaust will give u a nice sound an a decent power gain. but dun expect much this car sucks for bolt on parts

 
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I don't think there's going to be a gain on hp but neither are you going to loose.

 
Rep Power: 812

the general idea with small displacement engines is you may lose some low end torque but gain high end hp with larger diameter pipes. you cant have both. if the pipe is bigger, exhaust gas will slow down. this is bad for low rpm driving, but great for hi rpm driving when a smaller pipe will not be able to flow as much air. the oem setup uses smaller piping to speed up exhaust so you get good all-around (but mostly low end) power, since the engineers prolly think most drivers will not be going above 4k rpms on a daily basis.