Catalytic Converter and Horse Power. Why more HP? Part 1

When I replaced my catalytic converter it had to be cut out. The new one has to be welded back in. Facing all that work, I didn't even consider cleaning it as seen on Ericthecarguy's channel in this video catalytic converter cleaning. I've seen a lot of Honda's on Ericthecarguy's show and one Honda on an AutoZone show easier to remove catalytic converters with flanges. Theoretically, You can just bolt the new one one. Catalytic converters last too long and exhaust rusts, so "easy" is not how it usually still turns out. How kind of Honda to help make this possible. (Forgive me if I forget that maybe Eric had to add the bolt in flange to make that true?)

Anyway. I bought my catalytic converter (often called a cat) from Auto Parts Warehouse. First and only product I've bought from them, being fans of AutoZone and O'Reilly. I got it for $98. The reason I bought it here was because when I talked to O'Reilly's or AutoZone they wouldn't look at their database without my car in it. So, all they would see is stock cats. Only Auto Parts Warehouse out of 5 stores would work with me to look at cats by their diameter of pipe. I bought an Eastern Cat made for GM cars, which were designed to resist coolant and oil better than other cats since these leaks burned up so many cats on GM cars. It was legal in all but CA and I think NY. Catalytic converters don't have to always be expensive. If you live in CA or NY this article really doesn't apply to you (be sure to check your local laws). Since I thought I had a 2.5" catback upgrade I went with a 2.5" catalytic converter. I wanted a little more power. I went from 59 to 90.1 wHP. Not a little more!

It turns that my catback upgrade of 2.25" exhaust measures 2.5" on the outside, whoops. So, that was also a lot of extra work, but I wouldn't have done it any other way as this reduced back pressure further. Since catalytic converters are the biggest bottleneck on the exhaust getting out of the tailpipe, I figured bigger was better. I had to use pipe conversions from the catalytic converter to the down stream pipe. Plus, the 2.5" OD catalytic converter needed a 2.5" pipe into it, before the pipe converter would work. The converter and the catalytic converter were both 2.5" OD, meaning it fit over 2.5" and was more like 2.75". ID means it'd fit in rather than over. If ID and OD aren't mentioned it SHOULD be actual 2.5", not the case for the catalytic converter.

The worst part of the conversion was going from the 2.5" OD pipe of the catalytic converter to the 1.75" stock down pipe. They don't make a conversion pipe do that all at once. Took 2 conversion pipes and hours of cold steel work with a pipe expander that broke on a 2" pipe to get big enough to fit over rather than under the 1.75" down pipe. (The pipes I bought were 1/8" thick which adds to 1/4" of size for how it fits, but the stock pipe's were much thicker, maybe .375" thick.)

Back to back pressure on part 2 of Catalytic Converters and Horse Power.

by AutoBravado

Struts, Shocks, and the Steadiness of your Car or Truck and Wheel Bearings

Okay, so about a year ago, my car was bouncing down the road. A small flat spot had developed on my tires from an emergency braking moment and that spot kept growing. It damaged my probably already aging struts and a few months later my car was bouncing with every bump in the road. Turning on the highway slowed my car down really fast. There was so much bounce in the car, that I couldn't even coast down highway roads in neutral...I'm talking about going down hill folks.

It was bad, my car miles per gallon was of course was down to 23-27 miles per gallon. Having been double that in my best moments, I certainly tried not to think about that to prevent self-torture.

So, it was time to use the other 2 Monroe struts I'd bought 7 years ago. I had bought all 4 on a buy 3 get 1 free with rebate and it took that long for them to go bad on my front suspension, lol. Once installed the difference was positively amazing. My car got an immediate 30 miles per gallon. A long way to go back from once I came, but it was a start.

Trying to coast down hill in neutral still didn't speed up my car for my miles per gallon, but at least I could maintain speed. My wheel  bearings were still cutting into my car's miles per gallon for sure. I wanted 2 replaced and they only thought 1 needed replacing. Yes, I'll go back and get this fixed. They're an honorable shop. It's just that the Auto Technician didn't see the point without it being totally shot. They were about to close, so I didn't want to argue the point. Wheel Bearings, roughed up just a little will really hurt you. Months later it clicked. I tried greasing the old wheel bearing, but it was too late. It's like my neighbor said once they're making a little noise it's too late. (Regreasing was better on the short run, I didn't get for sure a car miles per gallon boost, but my my numbers didn't dip as much.)

Nearly 5 years later the
springs had to be replaced
too. Notice the extra coil
in the new one?

Fixing just the axle and 1 wheel bearing got me 40 car miles per gallon on a long trip (the 30 car
miles per gallon was city driving), but still I was getting like 33 or 34 car miles per gallon on the freeway before.

By the way, critical note to all. NEVER just replace an axle. They go bad because motor mounts are bad (at least check the motor mounts). $1,000 dollars later, (shop kept guaranteeing the first $400 of work for the axle which kept breaking, but they had to drop the transmission to replace the transmission mount (you can call it a motor mount, does the same thing)), the axle stopped breaking.

See Weapon R Dragon Intake Review for what I did next. :)
See what I did before: Weapon R Dragon Intake Review

2 years later I'm replacing the front and rear motor mounts, one or both of which was replaced above. The both look up as motor mounts for my engine, but the both attach to the transmission. I'm sourcing the top passenger side motor mount and that one only looks up if I use the word transmission mount. Funny right? Well, I'm replacing that and the other passenger motor mount next. You see the motor mounts are good enough, but the engine isn't as solid now with my 2 new ones as it was before at the time of this article, so it's time to finish replacing them all.

Here's part 2 embeded and as a link parts 2 and 3 (part 3 will be further edited for it's official release):

Motor Mounts Front & Back Installation Part 2 and 3 for your convenience 

by AutoBravado