OK I got 3 quick questions that I am sure anybody can answer but since I am a noob and no stickies have them ...

1. My car's exhaust is black ... My brother's prelude does this too. The old man says that this is from running the car hard which I do to a small extent. Is this easily fixable and what causes it?

2. I have a very car savy coworker that says a y-pipe with stock exhaust is useless because the same amount of exhaust is passing through so it wouldn't make a difference. I know from reading the forums that you can expect over 10 HP easily because it eliminates bends and 2 precats. Is he somewhat right?

3. Is riding you car hard every now and then actually bad or does it just waste gas. I was conservative about driving ... until I got my CAI ... but anyway I am always afraid to let her rip cause I don't want to "hurt" the car. Should I even worry about it or try to continue to be conservative (under 3500 RPM).

 

Mine is black too ... seems normal considering what's going on.



For most cars that would seem correct, but ours are a little different, as they gain little from the b-pipe, and much more even from only the y-pipe, weird but proven.

I ride my car very hard all the time, take it past redline, etc and thru out the years, I've only noticed less gas in the tank rather than less performance. BTW I have 227k.

 

get a ypipe, keep the car in good shape, put your footdown when you want, but be careful. the vq30de is tough

 

ok, from 1-3 that is something you should already know the answers to. if not, you obviously dont know much.

1. every car out there will have some sort of black on the exhaust, i mean, you are constantly blowing your cars fumes through it.
2. dont listen to him, your ypipe will give you gains even if you have a catback or not.
3. Duh~! if you run hard you waste gas and wear and tear on the car. Its ok to do so once in a while but of course when running hard it will wear the motor more than just dirving normal.

re-read your questions bro, they are all common sense.
hope you get to learn a lot more here.

 

does high revving your engine blow all that crap accumulated in the piping out?

 

When you see black in the exaughst it usually is unburnt fuel, like @ low rpms a diesel blows nothing but black but when the turbo spools up the air/fuel ratio is where it needs to be & the black clears out, but w/ your problem it may not be unburnt fuel???

as for your car savy coworker, the exaughst flow is increased starting @ the motor w/ a y-pipe thus increasing flow throughout the system so he is wrong. I bet he told you to get catback first, which would have the problem he is referring to if you don't START @ THE MOTOR w/ a y-pipe, I've heard that headers offer no performance gains over the stock manifolds on 4th gen. Catback only will sometimes loose power instead of gaining.
Don't be afraid to put your car through its' paces. Motors are tested @ 10,000+ rpms before hitting production, then a redline in determined for reliability. I'm not telling you to constantly abuse your car, but it is better on the fuel system(injectors & such) to see high rpms now & then vs. never going above 3500rpms, which will eventually leed to alot of things failing due to lack of use for how they are designed! C'mon w/ the haters!! I'm ready for your negativity!

 

Even if it did, it will be right back there in no time. Internal combustion engines burn ( key word, burn) fuel, thus releasing a spent gas (carbon monoxide), anything that BURNS, releases a gas/steam/smoke/residue. Such as anything lese when consumed ...