To anyone who said thank you, it was my pleasure. Glad i could be helpful. I paid under a thousand for the exhaust, so i feel like i got my moneys worth.

Also, i decided to try and tackle the filter, intake and heat shield. Going to wash the car then take it for a drive to make sure i didn't mess something up.

 

Looks beautiful. How do you like the intake? Does it generate additional noise or for aesthetic only?

 

That looks terrific! I didn't notice any dramatic difference in performance with the Invidia exhaust, but it sure makes me smile more when I'm driving!

 

didnt notice much noise different yet. But that could be because my exhaust seems to be louder in the middle of the car. Shortly after i popped a check engine light P0420. So i hope its just the exhaust and not some install error from the intake tube.

Hell yeah! Tons more smiles and thumbs up from people

 

As I mentioned before, the exhaust should not pop a CEL, if the installation does not have an exhaust leak and the O2 sensor has been connected correctly. That seems to be a primary cats error message. I have never had CEL in all of 2 years on my Invidia CB exhaust. I would recommend checking your installation again. Make sure there is no leak happening and the O2 sensor is connected correctly. Get help from an exhaust specialist if you need to have it checked.

I am also strongly considering getting the Takeda full intake as it replaces both the OEM tube with a resonator-free metal tube and the screen filter with a big conical filter while still retaining the sealed OEM box (which is important to me).

 

i’ll take it back to the shop that did the install let them
figure it out. Silly question, just being paranoid but the new intake tube wouldn't be able to cause a cats error, would it? Just trying to make sure its just a coincidence that the same day i installed the tube, i get a cel.

 

No, an intake would not cause a cat error message. The cat efficiency error you are getting is coming from the primary cats when you replaced the exhaust. Either the gaskets are not sealing the joint tightly/correctly or your O2 sensor might not be connected properly or might have some damage somehow while the installer was trying to pry it out. It is difficult to take out and requires some twisting etc. to take out.

 

Alright Cool. And thanks for all of your help. I appreciate it.

 

If I am correct, the A/F sensor is before the cats, and the O2 sensors are in the cats. The A/F sensor is your primary sensor, your O2 sensor is your secondary sensor. When replacing an exhaust on your own, those can be quite the challenge I would suppose

 

That's almost certainly an exhaust leak before the O2 sensors.
They should have used the gaskets that came with the Invidia exhaust and removed the OEM gaskets along with the old exhaust. There were two different size flat gaskets that came with the exhaust and it's pretty obvious where they go. But, if they did manage to swap them, it would probably cause a leak. I also cleaned up the header pipe to remove all the OEM gasket and made sure it was nice and smooth before installing the new exhaust.

 

Thanks for the dyno. Dynapacks are pretty consistent. Maybe it was good to have them a week apart since maybe the ECU needs to relearn for the different a/f ratio? I think I remember ISF guys doing that.

 

Did you mean MAF sensor? MAF sensor is in the air intake tube. There is no A/F sensor. If you meant air/fuel ratio, it is controlled by the ECU by injecting the appropriate amount of fuel based on how much air is flowing through the intake. There are no O2 sensor inside the cats either. They're either before or after, so the emission system can measure the cat's efficiency. Rolla is correct that installing the catback exhaust will not throw a CEL because there is no O2 sensor after the 2nd cat.

 

To be fair, the whole purpose of him getting the baseline first was to see what power the exhaust ADDED to his baseline. We all established that his baseline was higher than many others with stock RCFs, but at least it gave us a frame of reference. Yes he may have ended up with a good WHP number, but only because his baseline was that much higher than what was expected. When he added the exhaust, his numbers went up, but not by as much as expected. There are all kinds of conclusions that can be drawn from this... his baseline was done under optimal conditions whereas the run with the exhaust was not, his baseline was somehow wrong, OR that maybe the exhaust did not add as much power on his car as it does on others. The point is we can't know for sure, which is why I said that buying an exhaust ought to be about the sound and looks, because that part is obvious, rather than the power addition, because that part is less obvious and likely cannot be felt.

I used to be big fan of getting my cars dynoed. I have done it many times an organized several dyno days with car clubs locally. It's a fun thing to do, especially among groups of owners of the same car. But drawing conclusions about what parts added what power must be done with a control (preferably multiple controls) before adding in the variables. The OP did this, and I appreciate it.

For less than $1000 (what I believe he said he spent) I think he made an excellent choice. Of course I hope he gets the CEL sorted.

 

The MAF sensor is located in the intake tube, the air/fuel sensor I believe is in the manifold, or before the cats, it exists since it's on the parts websites. There are 2 A/F sensors and 2 O2 sensors according to the parts websites, I could be wrong, considering my brain thought the O2 sensor was in the cats lol.


EDIT: after a little more research, the O2 sensors are after the cats, and then the A/F sensor is before the cats in the exhaust manifold.. the a/f sensor is supposed to give the ECM the oxygen ratings from the exhaust... the MAF works with the A/F sensor(s) in order to precisely have the right a/f ratio... I think the O2 sensors are only used for emissions readings, this is most likely not the case, but you never know

 

I can unequivocally state that my RCF SOUNDS faster after adding my Invidia.