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4mula · 03-13-2011, 06:09 PM

So at about 200K miles in my VX the cat clogged dropping my MPG 50%! So the immediate affordable solution (since I don't have to pass emissions here) was to gut the cat (hollowed it out with screw driver and a hammer). This immediately fixed the problem and the engine felt stronger than ever! This was before I knew anything about lean burn or hypermiling. So my question is, does this help or hurt my MPG? The thought would be that a better breathing motor would increase mpg (thus the cat being clogged reduced my mpg). So is there any negative effect? Loss of low end torque from lack of back pressure maybe? Sorry I can't a-b-a it, a little pricey for an experiment

Any thoughts?

03-13-2011, 06:09 PM	#1 (permalink)
4mula EcoModding Lurker Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Georgia Posts: 23 The Egg-Mobile - '94 Honda Civic VX 90 day: 44.88 mpg (US) Thanks: 4 Thanked 5 Times in 3 Posts	Catalytic converters effect on MPG? So at about 200K miles in my VX the cat clogged dropping my MPG 50%! So the immediate affordable solution (since I don't have to pass emissions here) was to gut the cat (hollowed it out with screw driver and a hammer). This immediately fixed the problem and the engine felt stronger than ever! This was before I knew anything about lean burn or hypermiling. So my question is, does this help or hurt my MPG? The thought would be that a better breathing motor would increase mpg (thus the cat being clogged reduced my mpg). So is there any negative effect? Loss of low end torque from lack of back pressure maybe? Sorry I can't a-b-a it, a little pricey for an experiment Any thoughts?