Powercore Street/Competition High Flow Cat Review: On The Street and Real Life - Honda Prelude Forum

MugenPoweredLude · 02-17-2004, 12:38 PM

Well, its been about 10 months that I have had my Powercore Street/Competition High Flow Cat
I have liked it very much up until now..more on that later
heres a link to it..from Landspeedracing.com:

Powercore High Flow Cat

EDIT 2/18/04: my cat is 2.5" In/2.25" out

Well, when I first received it, it was nice looking to say the least, and resembled the stock cat a bit. When i went to install it well, the flange that lines up to the mugen header didnt line up so back it went, no questions asked....landspeedracing fixed it no problem after a phone call telling them more about the situation...they sent it back and it fit fine.

it was a lil quiet at first but as it was "broken in" it got much louder.
I have a Greddy EVO exhaust with a Mugen header....it made my evo more deep sounding at low rpm's which I loved. I felt some gains down low on the ol' butt dyno.
In the mid range at around 4K it was just plain loud...but not loud in a ricey way, but loud and mean sounding...and as soon as VTEC hit....grrr baby grrrr....
she was unbelieveabley loud in the mid range but the engine droned out the sound slightly in the upper RPM range

fast foward to last month, beginning of January....
I noticed a rattle...thought it was my exhaust piping hitting the heatshield again....so I go under the car and all is good but the rattle was still there.
so I let it be

fast foward to last week, Feb, 8 2004....the rattle got continously worse up until now and while i was driving home from getting gas, the exhaust went quiet.

at this point im scared as hell...well because i would get on it and I cant hear my exhaust!!!!

so i take local roads home and try not to rev it
seems like the material inside the cat has broken and is restricting air flow BIG TIME!!!!

took my car to the shop today....told my mechanic about it while its being dropped off for her makeover and he said you shouldnt drive around like that cuz you can blow your motor...true or not im not taking any chances
he also said that sometimes they break, he had 2 RT cats on his teggy and both broke twice but thanks to RT's great warranty, they replaced both no questions asked

its been 10 months and the damn thing broke

im not going to hollow it out cuz they sound like ass hollowed out...friend had one hollowed out on his 2.5rs...

worst case scenario ill hollow it out until my new high flow comes in which should be soon
im going with a RT cat this time tho, most likely 2.5" ID, see if my mechanic can get me a deal on it

so in the end, it was fun while it lasted and i loved the way she sounded.....if i would get it again....ehhhhh break once and thats it for you buddy

LUDExCONDUCT · 02-17-2004, 12:59 PM

Are you sure the catalyst inside didn't break from you scraping or hitting something pretty hard? Did you check to see if there was any sort of damage on the outside of the cat?

I had the same exact problem w/ my STOCK cat. The catalyst material iside broke and caused LOUD @SS rattling after a while!. I hated it and it annoyed the hell out of me. I bought a used stock cat from DefconShupalude (sp?) and swapped them out. No more rattling from me.

When I inspected my stock cat, I saw a couple of scrape marks on the heatshield, and a pretty large gash/indent. looked like I hit something pretty hard.

MugenPoweredLude · 02-17-2004, 02:47 PM

yes, im pretty sure i didnt scrap anything...im at a disgusting 3 1/2 finger wheel gap because of my body kit...which is no longer on the car now

and i havent drove the car a lot in a while
when i do drive it i drive it to pick up the mail or go do errands which are about 4 miles away...ive only put 4K on the odometer in 6 months

anyway, i checked it while it was on the lift, no scratches, nothing
when i do scrape, thats when i was low and no kit, i scraped either the front tow hook or the resonators on the EVO exhaust

NXLude · 02-17-2004, 03:56 PM

pull it apart and look in it to see what happens, it not super easy to break that element out, talk to landspeed about if their part is warrantied...

MugenPoweredLude · 02-17-2004, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by NXLude
pull it apart and look in it to see what happens, it not super easy to break that element out, talk to landspeed about if their part is warrantied...

thats the thing i dont have the receipt
i kept it with my other receipts of the stuff done to the lude but i cant find it

i would need the cat by sat night cuz monday morning i have to drive 50 miles to get camber kits/snow tires and alignment done

you think i can just hollow it out until i can get the replacement(i have the money....just that the shipping takes a while)

NXLude · 02-17-2004, 04:32 PM

Dont hollow it out untill you know for sure that its broke. The only way to break it is to melt the crap out of the innards or smack it really hard. They dont just break, normally.

MugenPoweredLude · 02-17-2004, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by NXLude
Dont hollow it out untill you know for sure that its broke. The only way to break it is to melt the crap out of the innards or smack it really hard. They dont just break, normally.

well, I just got off the phone with my shop...they have the cat out and they said they faced the outlet towards the floor and the innards just came out

so yea i need a new cat
hes gonna give me a price quote on a RT 2.5" cat tomorrow morning...if its too much, which it will be I'll see what D3 can do for me

my EVO is fine but im still replacing it
so if anyone needs an EVO exhaust...its for sale

how much should i sell it for...its been on the car for a 1yr/20,000 miles

also, would it be ok for me to hollow that out until my cat comes??? it wont do any harm...im guessing no, maybe a CEL because its basically a test pipe now

TimeRacer · 02-17-2004, 06:22 PM

Catalyctic converters go out, usually due to getting the cat far too hot. Either from too rich and getting fuel into the exhaust stream, or too lean and driving up those EGT's. It's just something to deal with if you're going to install one. When it goes out is more dependant upon the conditions delivered to the cat. Treat it nice it'll stay for years, treat it badly it'll melt its internals and clog up.

MugenPoweredLude · 02-17-2004, 06:44 PM

probally too rich in my case...i always smell it out the exhaust...worse in the winter

**** this RT cat is going to be way toooo much and i wont have a budget for the other things

ummm might have to go with a carsound cat

Joon525 · 02-17-2004, 06:49 PM

My 2.5" Random Technology cat was $336.46 shipped just FYI. It's probably the best looking (construction-wise) cat I've seen. Member Tony has seen it as well so you can ask him for opinions (if he remembers it).
I'm going to try to pass inspection with it next month...I think Random Technology's warantee may guarantee that it will pass (I will have to double check my paperwork though).

MugenPoweredLude · 02-17-2004, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Joon525
My 2.5" Random Technology cat was $336.46 shipped just FYI. It's probably the best looking (construction-wise) cat I've seen. Member Tony has seen it as well so you can ask him for opinions (if he remembers it).
I'm going to try to pass inspection with it next month...I think Random Technology's warantee may guarantee that it will pass (I will have to double check my paperwork though).

HOLY ****!!!

damn it now i have to go with a carsound but i cant find anyone that sells it
would it be wise to hollow out my powercore until my cat comes in???

any negative effects if i run a hollowed out cat for a bit, besides maybe... maybe a CEL???

TimeRacer · 02-17-2004, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MugenPoweredLude

ummm might have to go with a carsound cat

Any reason why you deem using a carsound cat a horrible thing? Esp if you already have the flanges from your burt up cat I don't see anything wrong with this idea as carsound is probably one of the most consistant (flow wise) catalyctic converters. Been running mine for over a year and no problems.

MugenPoweredLude · 02-17-2004, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TimeRacer

Any reason why you deem using a carsound cat a horrible thing? Esp if you already have the flanges from your burt up cat I don't see anything wrong with this idea as carsound is probably one of the most consistant (flow wise) catalyctic converters. Been running mine for over a year and no problems.

i didnt say it was horrible
i wanted to run a RT but budget wont allow it

anyways where can i get a carsound...all the sites i got from a search dont have it or the links are dead

also, is it ok to run a hollowed out cat for a long time???

axion68 · 02-17-2004, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MugenPoweredLude

i didnt say it was horrible
i wanted to run a RT but budget wont allow it

anyways where can i get a carsound...all the sites i got from a search dont have it or the links are dead

also, is it ok to run a hollowed out cat for a long time???

you will throw a CEL with a hollowed out cat. The OBDII workaround will take care of it though.

I would recommend a carsound over most high flow cats, IIRC they even outflow Random Cats and cost a hell of a lot cheaper.

MugenPoweredLude · 02-17-2004, 07:58 PM

ok now all thats left is where to get them
i searched, tried all the sites and they either arent there no more or they dont carry them anymore

do you think Midas sells them???
i remember a post in my search saying they might or they did

Joon525 · 02-17-2004, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by axion68
I would recommend a carsound over most high flow cats, IIRC they even outflow Random Cats and cost a hell of a lot cheaper.

I know there was a comparison of the CarSound vs the stock off-the-shelf Random Technology cat but I don't think anyone's done a test with a CarSound vs 2.5" Random Technology cat.

The off-the-shelf Random Technology cat has a 2" pipe diameter so I WOULD expect it to flow less than a 2.25" or a 2.5" CarSound cat.

shik0me · 02-17-2004, 09:03 PM

Do high-flow cats generally make the exhaust louder/raspier? It seems to me there would be a difference in sound due to the increased flow. I'm thinking whether to get one in the future but the Mugen is about as loud as I want to get already.

Joon525 · 02-17-2004, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shik0me
Do high-flow cats generally make the exhaust louder/raspier? It seems to me there would be a difference in sound due to the increased flow. I'm thinking whether to get one in the future but the Mugen is about as loud as I want to get already.

I personally barely noticed any difference. My exhaust is loud as it is though so maybe I'm not a good test subject?

MugenPoweredLude · 02-17-2004, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shik0me
Do high-flow cats generally make the exhaust louder/raspier? It seems to me there would be a difference in sound due to the increased flow. I'm thinking whether to get one in the future but the Mugen is about as loud as I want to get already.

my Powercore made it louder at around 4K...but a mean sounding loud

not raspy either

dont know about the other ones...you would have to ask the owners of carsound and RT cats

bolivianfuego · 02-17-2004, 09:13 PM

I knew it! I always told everyoen on this board that hi flow cats are a buncha crap. Over time they clog and suck ass.