I recently did a Cat Delete on my 1986 Camaro Z28 and I have a few questions for the Marylanders... 1. If I were to get pulled over, would you think a police officer would get on his hands and knees to look under my car to see if it had a Catalytic Converter? 2. What is the WORST thing that can happen if the police do discover I don't have a catalytic converter? (Ticket to go to have one put on? Car Towed Away? 90 Days to put one on?) I can't find this anywhere... and I don't have emission checks in my county. 3. Is there a huge difference in sound between a high flow cat and a straight pipe? Thanks for the help.

1.absolutely not
2. a ticket and a month or so to put one on
3. price

I know a guy with a supercharged 87 with a hallowed out cat and he passed emissions.

if ur set up is mild and you have it tuned well it is possible to pass emissions without a cat. if there is already a cat in there though, just leave it, the only real advantage you will notice is the sound

completely missed your lack of emissions checks... in conclusion you will not get in trouble

The sound is overall really loud, but my friends vehicles are 2002 SS Camaro, 2002 GT Mustang, and 2001 Cobra Mustang and theirs is just about as loud.

Yeah, my county is excluded from emissions.

If they check... Any idea how much the ticket would be or are they just going to ask you to put a new one on?

I don't think they'll check.

(I don't speed either, so there is no reason to pull me over)

EDIT: I actually just removed the cat yesterday.

1 more thing... Is this an overall gain or loss without the cat? Or does it even itself out? (Because my Dad suggests I'm losing compression)

your not losing compression..thats rediculous...
what you are lowering is backpressure...you should gain a few ponies..potentially lose a ft/lb of tq or 2..but to be honest nobody can really say for sure w/o dyno numbers before and after etc..

All you'll get is a repair order for having a missing cat. And that's if you get a cop who's really got that much time on his hands that he's gonna look. Which I don't think you will. Also, what county do you live in? 'Cause in PG we have emissions... and that's not gonna cut it.

Worst comes to worst, just gut a cat, thread a straightpipe in there and they won't know unless they start cutting it up

I have ran without a cat for a while sounds like poop you get pops.

Just run a high flow and call it a day. Theres barely any power loss and your legal.

Couldn't have said it any better. Looking back at it when my car was a daily driver i wish i kept the cats on it. You will not gain any hp or torque when you gut them unless it was clogged in the first place. If you gut it and run a straight pipe through it you MAY gain 1-2 hp its just not worth the hassle. These cars also will pop and crack and sound like crap.

Put historic tags on it and do what you want to it.

Thats what I would do

i was curious about how hard it is to get those in maryland? do people see a drop in insurance rates with historic tags?

You walk in with a title, pay up, and walk out with historic tags, it's really easy.

I've never switched between regular and historic so I have no idea about the insurance difference.

you dont have to prove its not a dd?

I walked in said I wanted historic tags and walked out with them. They never asked anything about the car or if it was a DD.

Okay, here's the real deal with Historic tags.If your car is 20 years old or older, it qualifies for historic tags.To slap these on a daily driver?I wouldn't recommend this,as that's not what they're used for, and it disses everyone else in the hobby.You MAY be able to pull this off, however, if you keep it insured as a daily driver.I have a buddy with a '76 MG and he drives this to work and school on sunny days and hasen't been pulled over yet.If this car is only being driven on weekends, to cruises or to shows (pleasure use) by all means, go with Historics and don't worry.Your age will factor in here, though, if you want Historic insurance, which is dirt cheap.My insurer won't cover any owners/drivers under the age of 25 PERIOD.If you're younger than 25, you would have to put the car in a parent's name to get the historic insurance.I'm not trying to play Johnny Prick here;I just don't want to see a good guy get jammed.I drove my '68 Chevelle to work for a couple of days and managed to pull it off, but I was nervous as heck.As far as your exhaust goes, you're lucky to be living in Bobtail County where there are no emissions laws.You could run straight exhaust,or cat delete exhaust, but I wouldn't encourage it.A County cop probably would'nt give you any hassle, but a State Trooper (being more savvy on vehicle law) could issue you a Safety Equipment Repair Order (inspection ticket) for this because you are not running with a cat. There was an article in Car Craft not long ago that did a comparo of full cat and cat-delete exhaust systems and found only small differences in HP and torque.Also,I have a car show buddy that has straight exhaust on his Chevelle and it sounds obnoxious(!) and yes, he has already got at least one inspection ticket as far as I know,and his car is tagged as a Street Rod (class N)!With all that being said,if you feel Historic (class L) tags will work for ypu ,you can download the appropriate form, VR-096 from the Maryland MVA website.I hope this info helps.Let us know what you did!!

I think the only reason a cop would even look for a catalytic converter is if your exhaust was too loud and he just happened to get on his/her hands and knees and look for it. I don't see how the cop would even think to look otherwise. Just make sure if you're pulled over, pull wayyyyyy off the shoulder so the cop would have to roll around in the dirt to even get a look.

A friend of mine got pulled over in his E36 M3 because his exhaust was too loud. Had a cat and muffler, but the cops reasoning was "I can hear it." His car was way quieter than the random Harley driving around. But the cop didn't look under the car, just gave him a fix-it ticket.

IMO, you'd have to have some real hard-*** cop to even think about looking for a cat. And like everyone has said, the worst thing is that you're going to get a ticket to get it fixed.

Pat

I just talked to my insurance guy and he said basically the same thing. You cant get away with lying about historic insurance because if you get bumped into at the parking lot of you work or you have an accident while your at the bar on wednesday night they are gonna be like what the he11 are you doing we dont cover this. He said I could get historic tags and get regular insurance, because as you said, if you are under the age of 25 or have a certain number of points, you don't qualify for historic insurance. Sorry to hijack the thread.

The only cars I ever see pulled over with exhausts are asian and european cars. Just what I've noticed...

You should just get Historic Tags.

As a LEO I rarely bother HIstoric Tagged vehicles Unless its obviously a safety defect with the vehicle.

your car is an 86 your 2 years behind. could had this done 2 years ago.

just got the car a couple months ago, ive been working on it and it wont be done for a couple more months but I will get them when its running.

Good idea!