So I've been reading up a little on people poking their felines (you know, the ones in the exhaust system).

The claims of 30hp from doing this seems exaggerated, btw, and I'd be far more interested in the boost in mpg over hp anyway...

I'm interested in whether or not they achieved this without triggering the check engine light and if they were successful, was it with spark plug nonfoulers, or did they have to resort to a reprogramming of the computer...what do they call it on this car anyway, ECU, ECM, PCM? I presume that there are downstream o2 sensors that simply tell the computer that those felines are frisky and the upstream one(s) do the bang-bang juice mixing...

Also, is the exhaust slip fit with clamps or bolted flange and are those kittens easy access or convoluted and buried? Just got the car and have yet to get a good look underneath...Finally, anyone got a sound file or an opinion on how it sounds after poking your kittens? I don't want it to sound like the civics with the angry bumblebees going on...

Ermmm...dig it daddy-o, lol

 

Post a link to these claims.

FWIW, removing any restriction in the intake/exhaust will always net gains.
Similar to the port/polishing of a manifold.

As for MPGs, the ECU (tune) in the car manages the the car using multiple inputs including the balance between the four O2 censors.

All that said, gutting the exhaust could net gains and the car could balance it with the factor tune, buts more likely that you will lose MPGs in the long run.

Here is some light reading for you

https://www.google.com/search?q=rl+h...&bih=706&dpr=2

 

There were two posts about 30hp from just the cats in one of the modding posts I read before. Irrelevant because I didn't believe it anyway.

There was another post where someone said that, cumulatively, the kitten removal plus intake and exhaust mods were in the neighborhood of a 30hp gain, which does sound reasonable. At any rate $400+ for just the jpipe is a little steep when you can get full ceramic coated header systems on other cars for much less than that. Might see what my welder buddy can hook me up with below board on that front....I would pull the system from the junkyard model I found but they won't sell that particular part of the vehicle.

 

The second comment is in line with what I said.
It takes flow all the way through to efficiently use the air.

I ran a J pipe for a while, its a nice product.

 

Not saying it's not likely to be nice...it's just that 400 bucks is a little steep for only a few bends in stainless...

 

For those who similarly wanted to autocross their S2000s, there was a delete pipe offered. Mind you, the S2K's stock system was very efficient in the first place and difficult to improve.

IIRC, there was some sort of resistor to bring the up & down lambda sensors back into the expected range, therefore not screwing up the e-maps and putting the car into limp mode.

Dunno if such a pipe would fit straight in?