Have been slowing tweaking my R52 JCW. Have some past posts on when I put a RMW Dominator Cam, 450 injectors and a Jan tune. I have the money to go with the best but my upbringing of using common sense normally takes precedence. My car is pushing 12 years old and I just cannot see spending top money for mod parts. I bought an OBX 4-2-1 header off of Amazon when they had them on sale. I then did allot of research on high flow cats learning about s wraps and plain old coil wraps. I bought a 200 cell unit, got some flanges, an O2 extender and had a weld shop fab me up a unit that is 13" long. I am working on doing the same with a OEM cat that I found on ebay for $30. When inspection time comes I change out the highflow for the OEM unit. I did my research on the OBX so had a good idea of what type of HP and torque gains I would get. A friend has a R53 with a 17% pulley and a DT BPV. With the heavier weight of the R52 I was never able to match his acceleration until I put the OBX on. Throw in the extra bark that the OBX/high flow adds to the JCW exhaust and I am very happy. Not too loud, some nice pops and a great sound at WOT. On the way to the Dragon was getting just over 28 MPG that was also nice. Never had mpgs like that after I put on the 450s.
Do you actually need to change that? Mine has no cat and works find for emmissions. (Granted R56 turbo.. so different there)..
We have visual inspections in my county and the O2 bung is your basic 90 degree bend that sticks out like a sore thumb. Remember that the Gen1 cat is not stuffed up in the engine bay as you turbo guys, rather is sits under the gear shifter in the exhaust tunnel.
Did allot of hunting when I was younger and my ears are shot so would not even think about no cat on the car. I will put up a post on high flow cats.
Ok but I find when I put my cats on the car they make lots of noise! I can hear their cry’s even with the windows up.