Cats or no cats?

[camoeto]

No, I'm not talking about a pair of furry ones :)

I still haven't decided what to do with my exhaust setup since I got a feeling my Pypes axle-back is not going to stay on my car too much longer and I really want LTH. However I haven't decided if I want to run them with high-flow cats or not. I would prefer to run high flow cats, but it's really a budget issue more than anything else. I never ran a car without cats and have never seen one either, and was hoping if I could get advice from some of you who have experience with this sort of thing to separate fiction from fact. I should add that I live in Michigan where we have no emissions test and I'm not a fan of Al Gore, so that's not an issue. Here are the specifics that I am intersted in:

1. Smell - Does the exhaust get a weird smell with no cats?
2. Sound - Is a setup with no cats significantly louder than high-flow cats?
3. Look - I've seen a video of a different car running with no cats where the exhaust looked grayish, is this the case with our G8s?
4. Power - Does running LTH with no cats give a significant power increase vs. no cats?
5. Anything other potential differences that I'm missing like drone, ECM issues, etc?

[Darkside]

I'm running offroad pipes right now, and used to in several past vehicles. I can easily smell that they are not on especially before the car warms up. I expect the smell to lessen once its properly tuned, I'm sure it running pretty rich right now. Tuning made a big difference on my TBSS.

I'm sure a little power will be added without running cats, and it certainly makes a bit more noise. I have a couple of videos for sound, I'm going to try and upload them in the next day or so.

['02 ws6]

Agreeing what Darkside posted...

Yes you will have a fairly noticeable scent, the sound level may be a bit louder depending on which cat you're comparing it to.

Power level increase is minimal when comparing to high-flow cats, I'm guessing 5hp at the most.

If you're installing LTs then I assume you're planning on a tune, which will solve any potential codes being thrown from the lack of cats.
BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104

[Steve]

Depending on your location/shop you take it to they may have 'if it comes in with cats, it's gotta leave with cats' rule

[The Commodore]

I'm in this delima as well. IIRC it is cheaper to get the ARHs without cats and here in Florida we have no emmissions testing.

[camoeto]

Agreeing what Darkside posted...

Yes you will have a fairly noticeable scent, the sound level may be a bit louder depending on which cat you're comparing it to.

Power level increase is minimal when comparing to high-flow cats, I'm guessing 5hp at the most.

If you're installing LTs then I assume you're planning on a tune, which will solve any potential codes being thrown from the lack of cats.
BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104

Definitely planning on a tune, and I am comparing no cats with high-flow cats such as the ones that come with the Kooks X-Pipe. I think I'm leaning towards something like JBAs right now because it looks like with the current pricing the whole setup including cats, x-pipe, and and extra piping will run about $1000. I know that people like Kooks and ARH better, but they should all be pretty similar in function and material quality.

[Darkside]

Very cold outside, thus the smoke.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/Darkside/th_G8WITHHDRSOFFRAODANDCHAMBEREDTURBOS.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v603/Darkside/?action=view&current=G8WITHHDRSOFFRAODANDCHAMBEREDTURBOS.flv)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/Darkside/th_G8WITHHDRSOFFROADANDCHAMBEREDTURBOS.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v603/Darkside/?action=view&current=G8WITHHDRSOFFROADANDCHAMBEREDTURBOS.flv)

[Chris442]

1. Smell - Does the exhaust get a weird smell with no cats?
2. Sound - Is a setup with no cats significantly louder than high-flow cats?
3. Look - I've seen a video of a different car running with no cats where the exhaust looked grayish, is this the case with our G8s?
4. Power - Does running LTH with no cats give a significant power increase vs. no cats?
5. Anything other potential differences that I'm missing like drone, ECM issues, etc?

1. There is definitely a smell with no cats, kinda like an old car with, well, no cats. If you have a cam in the car it gets worse.
2. No cats is louder. It makes a bigger difference than you'd think, too. My roommate has a C5 with LTs and a catback, and another buddy of mine had the exact same setup except without cats. With cats it was a good sounding, but liveable setup, however without cats was extremely loud to where I wouldn't want to listen to it every day. If he had a big cam in that car it would have sounded like a racecar.
3. Other than seeing more condensation out of the pipes when it's cooler out, no difference.
4. A bit less power, 3-5 hp tops.
5. As was said before a tune is required to get rid of the codes with no cats, but it's a good idea anyway as a tune alone on G8 makes good power. Drone isn't affected too much, if anything it's just a bit louder.

Today I think I'd get cats personally. I've tired a bit of the smell from my GTO, and the regulatory future for cars makes me think it's going to be harder and harder to get away with not having them. I like the fact that they muffle the sound a bit, too.