CLK-Class (W208) 1998-2002: CLK 200, CLK 230K, CLK 320, CLK 430 [Coupes & Cabriolets]

Cat removal?

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Old Aug 28, 2006 | 05:28 PM
  #1  
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01 CLK 430
Cat removal?

Has anyone taken out their secondary cats and either:

Replaced them with race cats?

or

Replaced tehm with piping?

If so, what were the results.....

-Ghost
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Old Aug 28, 2006 | 05:47 PM
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In all honesty removing the cat may free up 4 or 5 hp's. Once that cat is removed the check engine light is going to come on and stay on. If I were you I wouldnt bother.
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Old Aug 28, 2006 | 08:12 PM
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Originally Posted by jab06
In all honesty removing the cat may free up 4 or 5 hp's. Once that cat is removed the check engine light is going to come on and stay on. If I were you I wouldnt bother.
sorry bud. you are incorrect about the check engine light coming on. I just removed my rear 2 cats AND my 2 foot long resonator. I replaced all that crap with a 3.5" y-pipe. My check engine light has NOT come on and WILL NOT come on as the O2 sensors are attached to the exhaust system WAY in front of what I did. They do NOT measure anything behind them.

My car sounds like a beast now. So if you want a small HP increase and a deeper, throatier sound, by all means, go ahead and do the Y-pipe.
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Old Aug 28, 2006 | 08:24 PM
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Interesting.
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Old Aug 28, 2006 | 09:01 PM
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01 CLK 430
Originally Posted by clkal
sorry bud. you are incorrect about the check engine light coming on. I just removed my rear 2 cats AND my 2 foot long resonator. I replaced all that crap with a 3.5" y-pipe. My check engine light has NOT come on and WILL NOT come on as the O2 sensors are attached to the exhaust system WAY in front of what I did. They do NOT measure anything behind them.

My car sounds like a beast now. So if you want a small HP increase and a deeper, throatier sound, by all means, go ahead and do the Y-pipe.

Did the same thing on my BMW but replaced them all with a 3" race cat. How long did it take for your ECU to readjust itself?

Do you have any pictures?

My resonator is already gone so I'm like halfway there.
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Old Aug 28, 2006 | 09:22 PM
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Sorry my bad. I thought you were talking about the downstream cats.
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Old Aug 29, 2006 | 01:17 AM
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Sounds good but will this make you fail emissions or decrease your backpressure resulting in less torque?
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Old Aug 29, 2006 | 01:57 AM
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Originally Posted by ClkE20
Sounds good but will this make you fail emissions or decrease your backpressure resulting in less torque?
+1,

I was gonna said the same thing.
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Old Aug 29, 2006 | 09:05 AM
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Originally Posted by ClkE20
Sounds good but will this make you fail emissions or decrease your backpressure resulting in less torque?
I replaced the y-pipe on my 04 Maxima, which cut one one of the cats (the other 2 are on the headers) and I passed emissions with no problems. If the configuration on the CLK is the same, I would imagine that you would pass just the same.

As far as backpressure, that's another story... I've seen people gain 5-10hp at the wheels from a cat delete, but if you start messing with the resonator or from the cat back, then you gotta be careful about doing things right. Going straight pipe all the way to the mufflers would sound great (maybe too much for some people though), but you might be shooting yourself in the foot in low-end torque.

A dyno run will always tell the tale though...
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Old Aug 29, 2006 | 10:21 AM
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Originally Posted by viguera
I replaced the y-pipe on my 04 Maxima, which cut one one of the cats (the other 2 are on the headers) and I passed emissions with no problems. If the configuration on the CLK is the same, I would imagine that you would pass just the same.

As far as backpressure, that's another story... I've seen people gain 5-10hp at the wheels from a cat delete, but if you start messing with the resonator or from the cat back, then you gotta be careful about doing things right. Going straight pipe all the way to the mufflers would sound great (maybe too much for some people though), but you might be shooting yourself in the foot in low-end torque.

A dyno run will always tell the tale though...
There are 4 cats on the exhaust system, 2 for each bank of 4 cylinders. The 2 cats closest to each exhaust manifold are the ones that have the O2 sensors attached to them. The 2 downstream from that are just there. I gained both HP and TQ on my other car when I did this, but I couldn't tell you where in the rev range though.
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Old Aug 29, 2006 | 02:17 PM
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Originally Posted by ClkE20
Sounds good but will this make you fail emissions or decrease your backpressure resulting in less torque?
fail emmissions? i don't think so.

yes, I will lose some backpressure, however, I will gain a little on the top-end.

With a 5.4L V8, i'm not really bothered by losing a little low-end torque....i have plenty to spare =)

but , dayamn! My car sounds F'ing great!!!!!
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Old Aug 29, 2006 | 11:47 PM
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not stock.
sound clips ???
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Old Mar 11, 2008 | 07:58 PM
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clk430
clk430 backpressure problem

guys
I took off the resonator, put a K&N filter,and replaced the muffler with a straight pipe. The result wa a very nice sound ,however, I lost tork and downshifting response.
What should I do. Put the resonator back.
Put the resonator and the muffler.
Take off the secondary cats and keep the resonator.
I also have a supersprint muffler that I had on a golf gti would that create any problems.
thanks
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Old Mar 12, 2008 | 11:42 AM
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Originally Posted by simo
guys
I took off the resonator, put a K&N filter,and replaced the muffler with a straight pipe. The result wa a very nice sound ,however, I lost tork and downshifting response.
What should I do. Put the resonator back.
Put the resonator and the muffler.
Take off the secondary cats and keep the resonator.
I also have a supersprint muffler that I had on a golf gti would that create any problems.
thanks
You need to install a muffler of some kind....
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Old Mar 13, 2008 | 11:33 PM
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have any video or sounds without the cats?
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Old Mar 14, 2008 | 02:28 AM
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Originally Posted by DZ111
have any video or sounds without the cats?
+1
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Old Mar 14, 2008 | 03:13 PM
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CLK430
it seems like a great muffler choice for this type of mod would be the flowmaster or dynomax. quiet at idle and oh so sweet with a little throttle.
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Old Mar 14, 2008 | 06:20 PM
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Originally Posted by DZ111
have any video or sounds without the cats?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gbFX6p6JmY
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Old Mar 16, 2008 | 10:01 PM
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Thumbs up

Originally Posted by simo
guys
I took off the resonator, put a K&N filter,and replaced the muffler with a straight pipe. The result wa a very nice sound ,however, I lost tork and downshifting response.
What should I do. Put the resonator back.
Put the resonator and the muffler.
Take off the secondary cats and keep the resonator.
I also have a supersprint muffler that I had on a golf gti would that create any problems.
thanks
I learned that if you try to increase the flow of your exhaust by removing mufflers, cats and such, you will lose low end torque. This exact scenario happened to me..... I removed and replaced everything from the 2nd set of cats back with Magnaflow.
I fixed the loss of low end power by getting my ECU done (after the exhaust was finished). I used SpeedtuningUSA, but you could use anyone.
It gave me back the low end power and also gave me the top end.
I also had the redline increased by 500 rpm, shifting is stronger and top speed limiter was removed.
IMHO - I was suprised how much I got from the ECU tune...pretty impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdiYAA09khk

Last edited by Vabene7; Mar 16, 2008 at 10:04 PM.
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Old Mar 17, 2008 | 12:03 AM
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the problem isn't the secondary cats, its the primary cats. aka "header hugger" cats.

If you want to improve performance get a set of high flow magnaflow cats for ALL 4 cats both primary & secondary. THEN you will get decent gains.

Make sure the primaries are metallic core cats, ceramics won't be able to sustain the heat for long periods of time. You can get them on ebay for $114 shipped each, or i'm sure if you got 4 you could get a great deal, maybe get them at cheap as $100 a pop. Labor is the only real major expense.
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Old Mar 17, 2008 | 05:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Dr. C36
the problem isn't the secondary cats, its the primary cats. aka "header hugger" cats.

If you want to improve performance get a set of high flow magnaflow cats for ALL 4 cats both primary & secondary. THEN you will get decent gains.

Make sure the primaries are metallic core cats, ceramics won't be able to sustain the heat for long periods of time. You can get them on ebay for $114 shipped each, or i'm sure if you got 4 you could get a great deal, maybe get them at cheap as $100 a pop. Labor is the only real major expense.
Have you done this on your car and seen the gains?
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