Performance Curve catback, any good?

[rustydagger]

Deleting cats is pointless but to each their own on that one.

I cut the cat out of my '89 because it was stopped up badly and a new one was more expensive than welding in a piece of pipe.
It did make it a bit louder also.

I believe on some vehicles it does improve performance some. Depending on your setup.

 

[Dodge96Ram]

Of course a bad cat is going to cause issues. Running a high flow cat in place of the old tired OEM cat will keep you legal and will not hurt performance at all.

 

[Merc225hp]

There is nothing wrong with using a cat, its my choice not to.

I don't think?? I have ever mentioned to anyone over the years to remove a cat that lives down south, my understanding is that it's a fed law thing and that one must be used, but this is not fully enforced.

 

[Dodge96Ram]

dont take what i said wrong, not trying to attack you. A lot of people hear from their father, grandfather, whoever that cats are very restrictive. Back in the 70s and 80s they were terribly restrictive and did hurt performance quite a bit. The cats on todays and even yesterdays (90s) cars and trucks are of a much better design. Generally speaking anything with an o2 sensor after the cat (96 and newer) has a strong chance of tripping a check engine light when the cat is removed. It doesn't happen all the time but it does happen and IMO its not worth the risk. Buy a good quality high flow cat and you will have no performance loss, no chance of a CEL, stay legal, and your exhaust wont stink. At least not as much lol.

 

[Merc225hp]

Not at all bud And to a point yes I am still old school and I hate cat's, they have come a long way over the years improvment wise.

 

[B-g-K]

I hate cat's.

I'm more of a dog lover as well.

 

[dodge dude94]

Of course a bad cat is going to cause issues. Running a high flow cat in place of the old tired OEM cat will keep you legal and will not hurt performance at all.

^This. is why I just replaced my old broken cat with an OEM replacement. Didn't want to jack with trying to get a pipe in there.

There is nothing wrong with using a cat, its my choice not to.

I don't think?? I have ever mentioned to anyone over the years to remove a cat that lives down south, my understanding is that it's a fed law thing and that one must be used, but this is not fully enforced.

Yes, in all 50 states you must have a cat, but if you don't have SMOG testing (like in most of Texas) you can ditch the cat and just make sure it doesn't trip a CEL.

dont take what i said wrong, not trying to attack you. A lot of people hear from their father, grandfather, whoever that cats are very restrictive. Back in the 70s and 80s they were terribly restrictive and did hurt performance quite a bit. The cats on todays and even yesterdays (90s) cars and trucks are of a much better design. Generally speaking anything with an o2 sensor after the cat (96 and newer) has a strong chance of tripping a check engine light when the cat is removed. It doesn't happen all the time but it does happen and IMO its not worth the risk. Buy a good quality high flow cat and you will have no performance loss, no chance of a CEL, stay legal, and your exhaust wont stink. At least not as much lol.

The Dodges don't really trip the CEL, just depends on the truck.

And I love the stinky exhaust...on my 76.

 

[LaurenMagnum360]

Why would you want to add glasspacks and restrict the exhaust?

i'll be using thrush glasspacks which are completly straight through, unlike cherrybombs which have little louvers in them.

i want them, because i want the flowmaster sound (that muffler is a 40 knockoff) but i want it quite a bit quieter since i'm moving to Illinois in 1-1/2 months and they are very strict on exhaust systems.

 

[LaurenMagnum360]

Dodge96Ram

did your spare tire fit back under the truck after you installed this? mine doesn't look like it will fit back, and i'm running stock 265/75/16's

plus, i just installed it and i love the sound, though its a bit too loud for my taste, so i ordered a flowmaster hushpower II resonator to stick in front of the muffler, hopefully it will quiet it down a bit.

 

[Dodge96Ram]

I didn't take my spare down to install it, no need to. It's still in place issue free. Glad you're happy with it

 

[Larry_Flynt]

The 94-97 trucks could benefit from exhaust, 98+ trucks benefited more from a decent muffler and a new y-pipe. So also consider getting an off road y-pipe or a Magnaflow Direct-fit cat.

Not trying to beat a dead horse or bring back an old topic, but...

Why can the 94-97 benefit from exhaust? I would think dual exhaust like the one from Performance Curve would be more about liking the sound than gaining power. If any power is gained it would be in higher RPMs? I would think in the lower RPM range the stock exhaust would be adequate. That being said I am not against the dual exhaust, I just don't want to have a harder time pulling hills, lose torque, etc. Thoughts?

 

[Dodge96Ram]

Stock exhaust is restrictive, aftermarket exhaust is not as much. More free flowing exhaust makes more power. I noticed a gain in performance over all. I like the sound and im happy with the gains.

 

[dodge dude94]

Not trying to beat a dead horse or bring back an old topic, but...

Why can the 94-97 benefit from exhaust? I would think dual exhaust like the one from Performance Curve would be more about liking the sound than gaining power. If any power is gained it would be in higher RPMs? I would think in the lower RPM range the stock exhaust would be adequate. That being said I am not against the dual exhaust, I just don't want to have a harder time pulling hills, lose torque, etc. Thoughts?

The mufflers on the 94-97 I believe have more baffles in them as well as the tailpipes are a smaller diameter and have sharper bends. The main restrictions on these trucks are not from the cat back (minus the water heater muffler o'course) but from the cat forward in the y-pipe.

Stock exhaust is restrictive, aftermarket exhaust is not as much. More free flowing exhaust makes more power. I noticed a gain in performance over all. I like the sound and im happy with the gains.

You mean the factory y-pipe is restrictive.

I noticed a power gain when I swapped my Thrush in, and it doesn't even have the badass flow directors like the Dynomax Super Turbo does.

 

[Larry_Flynt]

I have looked at the pipe from the muffler back, the bends are actually not too sharp minus the 90 deg behind the rear tire. The pipe is 2.25" diameter, so for a 220 hp engine that should be fine. I think I am going to concentrate on getting a higher flowing y-pipe or perhaps just a high flow cat.

dodge dude94, do you remember the part number on the cat you installed? Thanks.

 

[dodge dude94]

I have looked at the pipe from the muffler back, the bends are actually not too sharp minus the 90 deg behind the rear tire. The pipe is 2.25" diameter, so for a 220 hp engine that should be fine. I think I am going to concentrate on getting a higher flowing y-pipe or perhaps just a high flow cat.

dodge dude94, do you remember the part number on the cat you installed? Thanks.

Errr, you should actually have a 2.5in exhaust after the cat, period. If your tailpipe smushes down to 2.25 you have a problem. lol

I do not remember the part number but I do have a picture.




Bought it on Amazon to the tune of $65 or so.

The improved y-pipes are the Magnaflow Direct-Fit cats and/or the Jegs Off Road Y-pipe. The ORY doesn't have a cat on it, but you basically hack the back half of the Y-pipe off and weld a universal single in/out cat on it and you're good.

 

[Larry_Flynt]

Errr, you should actually have a 2.5in exhaust after the cat, period. If your tailpipe smushes down to 2.25 you have a problem. lol

I do not remember the part number but I do have a picture.




Bought it on Amazon to the tune of $65 or so.

The improved y-pipes are the Magnaflow Direct-Fit cats and/or the Jegs Off Road Y-pipe. The ORY doesn't have a cat on it, but you basically hack the back half of the Y-pipe off and weld a universal single in/out cat on it and you're good.

Thanks. I was just eyeballing the pipe, it might be 2.5". Did you replace your cat because the stock one failed or because you wanted one that flowed better?

 

[dodge dude94]

Thanks. I was just eyeballing the pipe, it might be 2.5". Did you replace your cat because the stock one failed or because you wanted one that flowed better?

2.25 and 2.5 look very similar when you're eyeballing since I thought the exhaust on the 76 was 2.5 for the longest time until I measured it. :doh:

Uh, yeah. lol When I had my muffler put on my exhaust guy had to smush the pipe down on the existing exhaust a bit and when he did he upset my cat. Ran it like that for a while until I got more cash then replaced the cat and O2.

 

[Dodge96Ram]

Or do this. 2.25" engine pipes into a flowmaster y pipe

 

[dodge dude94]

^That's one of the better pipes I've seen, I won't lie. lol

 

[Dodge96Ram]

Custom done not over the counter. Use a normal single in single out cat.