Howzit people, i want to remove the cat converter from my A3 1.8t as a start- not replacing the exhaust for now - just welding a straight pipe in the place of the cat. Has anybody done just this alone?(without chipping etc.). Can the power gain be felt? Will motorplan detect this? Read something in Car magazine a while back that suggests the engine management will be affected, hence the worry.

Deon , good way to go, you need to speak to Darrin, I will email you his details

Wild 1.8T
Nothing Like Boost

I've had mine done and I regret it; the resonance which the straight pipes create is bloody annoying, the sound is yucky and definitely no noticeable power gains.

Keep the cats in, get a chip and proper zorst instead.

I remember that Andre also had the resonance problem, when he had his S6 "De-Catted", but manage to sort it out, cant remember how though !


view my ALBUM
philip@ballmail.co.za

If you replace the cat with a straight pipe, we will get quite a lot of resonance. What you need to do if to replace the cat with a small resonator - I found it gave quite a bit of power and sounds really nice with the resonator.

Gandalf, thanks for that bit of info. When I had mine done I asked if there was anything else one could replace the cats with, and the guy advised me against it. I went with his judgement though, and now I regret it. Can places like Speedy etc. just slap a resonator in there? If so, I think I may go get it done...

Jason, I am sure any exhaust shop could fit a resonator but somehow I would feel more comforable using a performance exhaust shop like TNT etc. I think Mosport fitted the resonator on Andre S6 which was decatted at first with a straight pipe. His impression was that after fitting the resonator the car had more power.

I was going to do it with my A4 1.8T, but was told that you can pick up problems with the Lamda sensor, and should steer clear.

Also, I would imagine that Audi would pick it up pretty much straight away - the CAT is pretty big, and the pipe pretty small, so they'd see the open space, and no doubt it would void your freeway plan.

There are some company's - e.g. performance masters - that remove your cat from the casing, and weld it all back up, so that it looks standard, but acts more like a free flow, BUT the lamda probelma nd resonence problem still remain...

Tend to agree with the above - chippem...

Cheers

Gandalf, thanks. There's no TNT here, and I got mine done at the Powerflow here in Parow, which is supposedly the place where one should go to get it done.

Any Capetonians on the board have some advice?

I'm not a CT bloke, but I do know that our CT agent, Robbi Ferroli, refers all his work there, and he has never had problems and rates them. I have seen their work, and it is neat, effective and professional.
Good luck

I know powerflow does good work.. But Personally I have spoken to the owner of both branches and neither of them no much about 1.8T motors and the exhaust systems they need...

Both of them said you only need a decat and no they wont change the down pipe and They wouild fit a 57mm exhaust.....

I have my own views on 1.8T and I am no expert... but the research i have done leads me to belive... 63mm is the minimum Size exhaust and the Downpip replacement is where you will make the most gains ......

what they said to me was we dont really do those cars we just normally decat and send them to ferrolli for a chip.. like it is some magic pill.. and you could run any exhaust with it...
..

my 2 cents

Hi,

I must agree with Greg....Powerflow doesn't seem to know anything about the 1.8T motors.

I've been to Cowley, Tuffex, SAC, Powerflow etc here in CPT and the only shop that sounded as if they knew anything was Cowley in Paarden Eiland....unfortunately they do not do 63mm systems but I saw a Mazda 6 with a turbo there and they did a great`dual pipe job on it!!

From the research I've done the 63mm system seems like the best option for a chipped 1.8T....even a std one shows significant gains!

Audi A3 1.8T
ex "BroSpeed" RXi