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Are high-flow Cats dirtier?

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by jonathanrohr, Mar 23, 2007.

  1. jonathanrohr

    jonathanrohr New Member

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    Ok, first, did I spell dirtier right?

    And second, a friend and I were talking, trying to decide wether or not High-Flow Catalytic Converters from companies such as magnaflow clean out LESS pollutants than the stock ones do.

    As stated on their box, they are 50-state legal, which I am assuming means your car will still pass emissions standards in the green-friendly states. BUT: what does passing emissions mean? Does that mean you have met the specs you are supposed to with YOUR particular vehicle (as relating to stock specs) or is it just some across the board rating that must be achieved by all cars?

    Looking at the descriptions on their website it seems that most of the improved "flow" comes from smoothing out the airflow in the inlet and outlet, as well as making the unit slightly bigger overall.

    I want to apply the same logic to Magnaflow Cat's as people do to K&N air filters; being that they let more air through, and do a better (or similar) job of it keeping it clean, win-win.

    Does anyone know if this is true or not?
     
    #1 jonathanrohr, Mar 23, 2007
  2. brick

    brick Active Member

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    Depends on how you make it "high flow." If you stuff less effective but less restrictive guts into the same package as your original CAT, then it's a fairly safe bet that the scrubbing capability will be reduced by less surface area available to the same volume of exhaust gasses. On the other hand, if you just make a bigger version of the same thing then I can't think of a good reason that you would lose any "cleanliness."

    Same thing would go for an air filter. Use two stock paper air filters in parallel and you'll get the same or better flow rate as a K&N without letting any more junk into your engine. Granted, that wouldn't exactly be easy...
     
    #2 brick, Mar 25, 2007
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