If I'm going to get a warpspeed Y pipe. Does the Fed/CA make a difference on performance I have no idea on what they mean. I know they are for off road use only but would I get harassed out here in California with it? I drive a 1996 I30

 

You need to find out if your car is cali or fed spec then buy accordingly. There shouldn't be any performance differences.

So how do I tell if my car is Cali or Fed spec?

Raise your hood. Look for a shiny metal identification tag fastened to the passenger side of firewall. The top row is the Vehicle Identification Number, starting with J. The second row is model information. The first five characters are BLHUL.The 12th characteris the destination:

N = Canada V = California U = US, not California

 

Seems simple enough have you installed your own y pipe how easy is it?

 

Also what would happen if i tried to install the wrong one? would it just not fit or other dilemmas?

 

Yeah check if Cali or Fed Spec, and buy according like above said^^^. And in Cali you wont get harassed but may have a problem passing smog, but then again if everything is good might Pass with flying colors...

 

I'm not 100 percent sure what is added but the cali spec has additional emissions parts. .I think it has an additional o2 sensor. So if u were fed and installed Cali you'd have a big ol hole.

 

If you did not have the correct y-pipe for your car's emissions, you couldn't bolt it on to the radiator side of the engine.

Fed spec y-pipe:


Cali spec y-pipe:

 

Depending on the pipe on a Cali spec, one pre cat has to stay in place. On my car it was bank 2, front of the car. The pre cat on bank 1 came out. Next is the relocation of the o2, it gets repositioned so that both o2's read the remaining pre cat. This keeps the CLE off.
Gains on a Cali spec are very minimal. Your best bet is to convert it to a fed spec by getting rid of the swirl valves and swapping to fed exhaust manifolds so you can use the fed Y on the car. You'll need o2 simulators to keep the CEL off for the rear cats. And you'll have to trick the ECU to see the swirl valve actuator.

 

If you do it right as stated ^^^ the inspector won't know it's even there!

 

I thought Cali spec and fed spec only mattered for 99. I have a 96 Cali spec with a fed spec ypipe. I thought I saw something somewhere in the stickies.

 

The bank 2 precat on the 99-01 Cali spec is actually a part of the exhaust manifold, where as 95-98 Cali / 95-99 fed specs have the OEM precat as part of the y-pipe. Bank 1 precat can be removed from all years.

If you are going to go through the added work of removing cali spec manifolds to be able to use a fed spec Y I would just buy some short headers to use with the new Y-pipe.

 

Cali or federal only matters for 99 years 98 and older are all federal spec...

 

So lost. Ill get the info and share the info and help me decide which is correct.

 

You have a 96' I30 correct? Get the 95-99 Fed spec. Done.

 

Yes. Will I need any other parts to install the pipe?

 

No, but it's a good idea to buy and install new crush gaskets at the same time.