Ok, here is some information on a few minor very cheap mods you can do to increase the performance on your rsx base/type S. All you need is :

1. 14 socket
2. jack or wheel ramps, ( wheel ramps recomended)
3. some wd-40
4.pair of rubber gloves, unless you like to get your hand ful of oil..lol.


Ok that is what you will need tool wise, the rest is just time. Let us begin with pulling the exhuast off from the axel back.

Running without the exhaust from the axel back

Ok first off put the wheel ramps in the back of the rear tires and bring the car on gently. Not to fast or you will shoot over and then thats just going to be funny and sad..hehe..After getting the car up on to the wheel ramps turn the car off and put the e-brake on and put it int first gear( some people are very simple and if you dont tell them what to do exactly they wont do it..LOL.)
Let the muffler cool down, approximatley 5 minutes and then get to work.
Get the 14 socket and go under the car from the rear of the car.
Connecting the muffler to the piping is 2 bolts. Unbolt them first then unhing the hinges. The hinges might be kind of hard but the trick is to pull the muffler down to streach the rubber hinges and pull one off at a time, this is much easier if you have someone help you. After this you should notice some increased power from the car. Its not a big hp gain but it does improve the performance a little bit. The rpms go a little bit faster and top end seems better. The car picks up faster and it seems to scream the ivtec better. This should increase your hp a little bit. Dont get all happy, its not much but its better then nothing..

<U>WARNING</U> :
By pulling off the exhaust you will start building up carbon below your car, and the sound mating in the rear hatch of the car ( where the spare tire and sub-woofer are) will start melting due to the heat created from the exhaust.


Running open cat

Ok, to remove the whole pipng from the cat back ( you can not run open header, there are 3 "o2" sensors connected to the cat, by removing the cat and the sensors it will put you into safe mode and you will not be able to go into ivtec.) you must do the same process from above. Its up to you which side you want to jack up. If your car is lowered from the front I would recomend you put the car up on wheel ramps from behind. Makes it much easier. If you car is stock height then either way is ok. After jacking the car up slide under the car till you reach the cat. Connecting the cat to the piping is 3 bolts. They are mainly pretty easy to remove with a 14 socket but the bolt that is going to give you the most problems is the top bolt.( the three bolts are ordered like a triangle, 2 bottom and one top). WD-40 the hell out of it and wait a few minutes (5). After this get the bolts off, but becareful, the top bolt was on so tight it took me like 30 minutes just to take the damn thing off. After you get the 3 bolts off you can do one of 2 things.

1. you can keep the piping on and connect the bottom of the piping to the top of the cat so it keeps the cat open but it looks like your piping is still on.

2. remove all the piping.

If you decide to keep the piping on all you have to do is connect the bottom of the piping. ( remember the bolt patter looks like a triangle) to the top of the triangle. The piping will be a little croocked but it will be ok.

If you decide to remove all the piping then you must unbolt the piping first and then you must remove the same hinges that were stated before. Slide the piping out from under you car and presto! open cat.

When you start the car it will sound like a beast. I mean loud as hell..
When you run the car like this you notice the low end rpms just fly by. It has more power from the begining but as you approach ivtec you cant really notice it kick in. It just gets a little louder. But the down fall is that it seem that once you hit ivtec it gets weaker. This options is only good for low end tourque. When you run open header it doesnt improve your top end. Low to mid end tourque is really good, but you actually lose top end speed. So the choice is yours.

<U>WARNING</U> :

Running open cat is not legal. Especially if you live in california. It is mainly for track or drag only. If you do run it on the streets like this it does get annoying to others and is very loud. And if you think that you can make it quiet by going into 6th gear your wrong. You have to push the gas a little bit and hold it there to make it some what quiet. When I ran my car open header I got the attention of many people, especially 3 cops who tried to follow me home.. So do this at your own risk...

Hope this helped a little bit..
Good Luck.....



[Modified by f1nal zeros, 8:31 PM 6/26/2002]

 

i dont know if leaving the axel back is a good idea....may not even gain power...is it possibel to take off the axel back section...and gut the muffler some how....thus increasing flow but still being able to leave the axel back section on, that still might make it a little louder , but not to loud i think...as long as the system still has a resonator

 

You cant take off the axel back and leave the muffler. They are connected. And yes the resonator is located like right before you reach the axel back. So the resonator is located like .5 inch before the bolts.So when you remove the muffler from the axel back you are actually running open resonator.

I have not tried to gut the muffler but I assume you can. It would pretty much be the same as running open resonator but you would still have extra weight from the muffler. and I might actually make the exhaust louder due to the hollow muffler. So either way will due, but by removing the muffler from the axel back would be easier and more time efficent. To gut the muffler you would first have to open it, gut it then weld it closed again. This might cost some $$ unless you know how to weld then go right ahead and try it and let us know.

I am currently looking into gutting the cat and seeing if there is hp gains.

<U>DO NOT TRY THIS</U>

gutting the cat is not known yet to improve hp on the k20 motor,I assume it will but do not mess with your cat. There are 3 "o2" sensors connected to the cat and it is not know what the after effects migt be due to the gutted cat. It might put your car into "safe" mode and you will not be able to go into ivtec. Your cat cost 1ooo.oo dollars so you are messing with a very expensive and important part on your car. So its entirely up to you weather or not you want to experiment.

I will keep you posted on what new things I discover. I am having a import shop check it out for me.. Good Luck guys, hope the informations helped you..

 

Thanks for the tips bro..

 

Your welcome. If you need help or informations about it let me know.

 

i was saying just leave the axel back +muffler , but just gut the muffler...it woudl look kind funny with just a pipe no muffler and such, would make a black mess under your car, and possibly cause more heat near your gas tank

 

Well it doesnt look funny at all. Actually it makes ricers think before reving on me. They come from behind and see no exhaust and they get kind of intimidated. As for the carbon building up, yeah its there hehe..If you want I can take pics of my car and show them to you. I can even show you how the exhaust melted the sound matting inside the hatch. As for the quote about more heat being put on the gas tank...hhmm. never thought of that.... BOOOM!!!! oh **** I think I got nos!!!! hehehe.

 

yeah..i'd liek to see a pick of it....

 

Ok. i'll take the pics tonight when I get home from work and try and post by tomorrow. Im working 11 hours today so If I dont get them up by tomorrow my bad..lol..

 

koo

 

Ok, guys these are the pics of the inside of my trunk. This is what running without a exhaust does. First pic is of the trunk, and the second is a close up shot of the melted sound mat.

 

i ran open for like two weeks... my trunk thing didnt melt and i do however agree that it seems that the top end doesnt seem to be affected by running open... however i think the power curve is more linear running open... car did seem a whole lot faster, but dunno never dyno'ed it... going through the gears was a lot faster...

 

Don't gut your cat. Geez.

If anything have someone make you a test pipe w/ the o2 bungs in it and figure out how to not get codes from them...

 

nice tips to ruin the environment, get fined $3000 and make your car sound like a pinto.... all for .4 HP gain?

if you do this, you're stupid in my book, and i HOPE you get pulled the hell over.

unless you're on the track, of course, then whatever you do is okay.

 

Oh man here we go with you again..

First of all I could give a rats *** about you or "YOUR BOOK"so, shhhs....

As for ruining the enviroment go screw yourself.People ruin the enviroment with every little thing from airisol cans to trash, so be quite. Do you own a aftermarket header or exhaust? If you do then you are ruining the enviroment as well, so be quiet captain plant..

As for the fines and the tips being illegal it true, Especially if you live in california. If you took the time to read the damn post then maybe you might have seen the warnings after each post warning you about weather it was legal. Also if you had read the post you would have seen that I said " this is to be used for track and drag use only, any other use of this may not be legal in your state"

Ok, so let me get this straight. How does running open cat make your car sound like a pinto? How many pintos do you hear that sound like that? When you running the car open header or open cat it gets louder and you hear the engine, not a little whinning noise you would get from a "pinto". So before you post about something learn about it. If you must get more exprience...Just because you own the car does not mean you know about the car.....




[Modified by f1nal zeros, 7:52 PM 7/1/2002]