To decat or not to decat?

[Claude]

Help me decide.

I'm tempted to decat my ProSpeed system then get a decent remap to make the car a little more 'driveable' lower down the rev range.

A few decat questions:

* Has anyone tried a decat but reverted back to standard? If so, why?

* Come MOT-time the cat will have to go back on to pass emissions tests legitimately. Are there any risks of damage to the system swapping it over regularly?

* Does the swap require any specialist tools or knowledge?

* Will any decat pipe fit, and are there any which should be avoided?

Can't think of any more questions right now. Responses & comments welcome. Thanks

 

[Jon.G]

1. Yes, I had a decat on my RS192 and it sounded nice, however it became tiresome, just overtaking people causually sounded like you were proper going for it. When sat in traffic it would sound as if you were using massive revs and on long journeys it was just annoying. I had my de-cat for a year and reverted to standard cat. Much much better, and can hardly notice any difference drivability wise.

2. Only thing to note is that I'd recommend a new manifold to cat fitting kit when you replace it as yours will be rusty. Also everytime you change it, you should replace the crush gasket. Which can only be bought in the cat to mani kit. (Which is £25 from renault)

3. Nothing special, very very easy job as long as you have some spanners and sockets.

4. No, many decats have different fittings. however if your custom exhaust was made for the standard CAT, you'd probably be best looking at something like the Scorpian decat which is designed for standard systems. You'll need one with a 'ball' type join on the end probably.

 

[Claude]

Thanks Jon, appreciate your comments. Certainly some food for thought there.

 

[BenG]

Another thing to be aware of is that the standard Cat has an offset, most decats do not have this offset which then causes the pipes to become unaligned in the rear cut outs. The yozzasport decat has this offset but I don't know of any other decats which do. It doesn't affect the alignment badly but it's enought to move it out of centre in the cut outs.

 

[marrow]

If you read EVO then you might have seen in this month's edition Harry talking about putting his decat back on after the MOT.

 

[Claude]

If you read EVO then you might have seen in this month's edition Harry talking about putting his decat back on after the MOT.

I've got the latest three grey packets in a pile ready to go - finding the time to get through them is proving tricky!

 

[marrow]

I've got the latest three grey packets in a pile ready to go - finding the time to get through them is proving tricky!

You need to spend less time thinking of decats and more time reading