Just installed as of last night were Cattman Headers and B-Pipe on my '02 6 Speed.

My concerns/problems are as follows:

1. Rattling in the Y-Pipe area. Possibly something inside the pipe. Does any recall seeing any of those "white-looking" pebbles?


2. Major rubbing on the car with the B-pipe installed. May have to go to a muffler shop to have the brackets repositioned at the muffler. I have an aftermarket PowerTech Muffler welded on to the stock muffler pipe.

Those are my only issues right now with the exception of the SES light because I broke the power steering sensor while leaning over the car. Stupid mistake.

If anyone who has installed this system before can comment on their experience with this setup. I know most of you have had no problems but would like to see if you had any of these issue pop up.

I will be going to get the car dyno tested this coming Friday to see if there are any gains over my runs this past Friday. I haven't really pushed the car because of the issues above. They may be small issues but they make a heck of a lot of noise.

 

Keep you stock muffler unless you want an extremely loud muffler that will make everyone laugh or turn their noses away in discuss. Keep your stock or get the Cattman muff.

 

can you explain more on this? i might have a similiar problem to you.....my cattman headers and exhaust are sitting in my room right now and are going to get it installed in the next few months....

 

wouldnt the white pebbles be part of the catalyst from the cats?

 

I wish!

Hey, just one thing though...are there inspections in CA? (I assume so) I'm ignorant on this...what happens when you go for inspection, with headers? Aren't they 'illegal'?

 

I had one white pebble come out when looking at mine. It could be from the coating process. It shouldn't be a problem cause you will push them out.

 

We do have emissions/inspections in Cali...but the place I go to is fairly lenient....they pop your hood, hook up some sensors, run it on the dyno and see if you pass or not....they don't really go under your car and check for cats or nothing....they just care if you pass or not...and besides...they won't be able to see my headers anyway becuz i'm slammed on D2 coilovers (3 inches all around)

 

Do the headers and/or cat-back set-ups make any change in emissions?

I really rrrreallly wanna get some headers and a cat-back, along with a Berk intake....the only thing that worries me is the strict inspection here in MA. I suppose the worse case scenario would be failing inspection at one place, and trying at another...or putting the stock pipes back on just for inspection....bummer.

Are there any 'street legal' headers out there for a 2k Max? Or does it matter? Sorry, I've never been in this situation.

 

Go to the stickies at the top of the main 5th Gen page, go to FAQs, then scroll to Exhaust... those should help answer your question... I know it says y-pipe, but I think its pretty similar, someone will correct me if I'm wrong here... let us know if ya can't find what ya need to know about emissions...

Oh yeah, and cat-backs don't affect emissions...

 

True that. You can run a straight pipe right out of your CAT, it wont matter. The particles per millions is not effected by any muffler.

One thing to keep in mind, if you have to do the Dyno style tests in your state. Make sure the car is run in the right gear. On the 6speed, if they go into 2nd gear on the 25mph test, it will prolly fail. (maybe it is third gear.) I can't remember which it was for me, but they kept going to a lower gear and dumping fuel into the exhaust mix.

 

Aha...good advice. I have an auto, and I'd REALLY LOVE some headers, and a cat-back...I'm probably going to get them both (headers/catback) and just see what happens....and deal with the inspection problems...if I have any.
Thanks Puppet for the link/advice.

I gotta say, the Max is one of the nicest cars I've owned...ever...and I have no problem sinking some cash into it for performance/appearance gains...despite what others say. Thanks for the help everyone...and any/all advice is welcome, as always.

 

Heck, anybody here have headers and/or a cat-back...and also live in MA, OR have to go through sh*tty 'dyno' emission inspections? I'd love to hear from you.

 

No problem man... let us know how things work out for ya when ya do get the set-up done.. I'd love headers too, but can't afford the time or money required to complete the set-up... I'm just gonna go for an intake+y-pipe+cat-back for now which is plenty of power for my purposes...

Ya damn right it is.... good to hear that you're enjoying it... and don't speak too soon about dropping cash... its a very slippery slope... so watch yourself

 

We have em in VA... royal PITA...