Fink

OK guys, I searched and searched and found very few concrete answers.

I want to get a free-flow cat for my '99. I am getting my Vortex muffler put on this Thursday. I am debating on putting 2.25" or 2.5" piping on. During my searches, I found a few threads saying that with the 2.5" piping I will lose low end power, thats not a good thing, I like quick accelerations. So with that being said, here are my questions:

1. When putting on the Vortex muffler, will 2.5" piping make me lose low end power?

2. Will it help me to put 2.5" piping on once I get my free-flow cat later on?

3. Do you even recommend a free-flow cat or should I just leave it stock?

4. If you answered yes to getting a new cat, what kind?, where?, yada yada...

Thanks for helping me out!

Fink

rocket

iTrader: (1)

The most common high-flow cat ive heard of and a lot of people have is the Magnaflow.
I bought mine here

I read of some guy having his for almost 2 years and said its still good as new.

Far as pipe size goes i did many many hours and days of research about this and came to the conclusion that 2.5" pipe is good on the 3.4 and 2.25" is good on the 3.0
Those pipe sizes reamain the same with additional mods such as a high flow cat and headers. Again, these are my own conclusions after doing extensive homework.

rimpainter.com

1. When putting on the Vortex muffler, will 2.5" piping make me lose low end power?

Hardly noticeable loss.

2. Will it help me to put 2.5" piping on once I get my free-flow cat later on?

Yes. But $ to HP ratio is not that good.

3. Do you even recommend a free-flow cat or should I just leave it stock?

Stock. Some stock cats flow so good that "high flow" cats actually create a loss of HP.

4. If you answered yes to getting a new cat, what kind?, where?, yada yada...

I didn't answer yes. But I would get a Carsound cat by Magnaflow off ebay. Should be under $60 shipped.

Just get the muffler welded on with the stock size piping. Save your $$.

Fink

So far it sounds like its split down the middle. If there is really not that much gain in power with a free-flow cat then I will just save my money until the stock cat goes...if there is going to be a NOTICEABLE difference in power then I will shell out the dough. Keep the answers coming!!

Fink

Fink

I've been lookin at the Magnaflows on EBay and it sounds like they are pretty nice! If I do end up going with a free flow, that'll be the one I go with. Is it worth the $60 bucks plus labor/install?!?!

Fink

rimpainter.com

Dude seriously, unless your stock cat has a problem (clogged) you are not going to see any difference. The honeycomb designed stock cats flow really well.

I can see you have the power bug. Start saving for the SC'r, trust me.

Fink

Yeah I'll probably go ahead and just stick with stock piping and cat...thanks for the guidance Christian.

Fink

Bigkahuna808

I pulled my stock cat out to put in a strait pipe. Luckly the cat was blown already when we cut it out. So put the strait pipe in. That was to loud for me after a few month (Flowmaster 40 delta muffler). I pulled that and put a aftermarket highflow cat and Borla muffler. That sounded quieter which I was going for. I didnt notice a difference with the strait pipe or the cat, it jsut sounded more powerful. If you want the power save for the charger like 96 runner said. I would have done the charger to but my milage is to high to slap one on.

rimpainter.com

I pulled my 96's SC'r off a 97 with 197K miles on it. The thing ran like a champ after I put it back to stock. How many miles do you have?

mattyp12

Now - I don't know anything about this subject 0 I am trying to figure this out just like everyone else - but, this is just want someone told me... he said to get more hp to do the following:

1) K&N Cold Air Intake
2) New exhaust - 2.25" (Magnaflow or Flowmaster)
3) High Flow Cat
4) Install the "chip" (modifies sensor outputs to the vehicle's onboard computer)

He said if I do that I should get 30-40hp increase...

I - on the other hand - am a little skeptical about that... mind you I have a '91 2.4, 4cyl., so I can't imagine doing that will give me that big of a push!!!!

I think I know what you all will say - but for gins and giggles - what do you think?!?!?

noahrexion

If I had a 2ng gen 2.4cl i would rather get a junked 3.0 rebuild it and swap it in trying to keep it around $500-$600 or so, which would yield much better results than throwing parts at the 22re.

As far as SC'ing a high milage motor. I am about to SC mine with 130k. All it took for me to be satisfied was the compression and leak down results (all within healthy spec)

X-AWDriver

With those mods you might see 7-12whp if you're lucky and the "chip" doesn't add a thing.
Supra turbos and most other turbo cars getting gains of 25 whp is quite common with a bigger exhaust but not on a naturally aspirated engine.

**Supras BTW gain nearly 70whp from just the turboback exhaust and a filter.

mattyp12

I didn't think that I would get THAT much out of these mods... but I thought I would ask... I love the 22re... reliability, gas, and they last forever... I figured it was worth a shot to see if I could get a few more hp out of it...

mtxride

As far as piping goes, my vote is to only change out the muffler and leave everything else stock. I had 2.5 inch pipe put on when I bought my magnaflow (thought it would help with headers that i ended up not getting) but didn't notice any power change. I'm even now considering going back to 2.25" to see if i get any low end torque back.

Fink

Sweet...that just makes my trip to the muffler shop tomorrow that much easier, cut out the old muffler, weld this one on...perfect.

Thanks for the help, if anybody has any ideas on the free flow cat later on down the road they wanna share or piping sizes and all that thatd be great.

Fink

kylerensmeyer

sorry this has nothing to do with the thread-at-hand, but wow, fink, i was looking at your 95 for sale... im salivating!!! i seriously want to sell mine to buy yours haha!

SpecializedBrder

I have a magnaflow freeflow cat on my 2.7 and man my car stinks...smells like sulfur

Fink

kyle,

It's still for sale!! HaHa. Thanks for the compliments, I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into that rig and I'm hoping somebody will buy it that appreciates it as much as I do.

About the cat,

I am just going to go stock, it sounds like the majority of the people on here who have them just don't like them, or can't notice a difference in them...so theres no point. I'm going to get my muffler installed after I go meet my girlfriend for lunch and I'm going to keep the stock piping and stock cat for now until something happens to the cat. As long as my stock piping looks fine on the rig then I'll just leave it.

Thanks for all the info, you are more than welcome to make comments about free-flow cats and we can just use this thread for information for searches and stuff...and I'm always wanting to learn as much as I can and this site is the perfect place to do so!

Thanks again,

Fink