Catless downpipe owners please read and reply

4DRHTRD

New member
How many of you have installed your catless downpipes and had issues with smoking post install?


Just curious to see of the people out there who is having issues.
 
I can see another problem becoming visable after installing these but not these causing a problem...

low cost turbo seals used to keep it cheap for ford, not enough runtime for seals to adjust conditioning, PCV system or a greater failure.

These could pinpoint a system weakness but they are not gonna cause it directly.
 
2014 SHO PP. At 1200mi car was fine no smoke and no mods. Installed my SW catless DP's and SW cat back. I noticed when I revved the car in the driveway excessive smoke and during decels after an aggressive pull. It was driving me nuts and hurting my brain. It was immediately after installing my exhaust. I refused to believe it.

I didn't want to go through the trouble of taking off the DP's so I just put the stock cat back on and left the DP's(catless). Smoke is virtually gone, when I rev the car and let it hit of the 4200 neutral rev limiter and check the exhaust I can only see a small trace of smoke.

I guess the 3rd cat of the stock cat back cleans it up a bit. I highly doubted that the turbos were bad since the car was brand new and only had 1200mi and it wasn't smoking before the catless DP install and re installing the stock cat back with the 3rd cat and making the smoke all but disappear proved that the turbos were ok. I really wasn't crazy about the sound of the exhaust anyway, I think the engine sounds kind of goofy so I like just the catless DP's as they make it just a bit louder but same kind of note.

Mine smoked the worst when I revved it and held it at the neutral rev limiter and quickly checked the tail pipes. I was thinking maybe since the car is direct injection and the fuel is sprayed very late and maybe something to do with how the spark and rev limiter act maybe there is more unburned fuel I have no idea.

But I do know that putting the stock cat back with the 3rd cat back on made the smoke go away. It was night and day.

Maybe the cats mask a problem. But I doubt the seals in my new car's turbos were bad, they were not overboosted from stock at that point.

I wouldn't think the seals are cheap as some have said, they are garett turbos right? And I could be wrong but I don't think they are like rubber seals that can blow out. I thought they were like precision's turbo seals which are a dynamic ring seal meaning they are metal rings that expand with heat but I'm just speculating there.

So some here will say that my turbos which still have less than 3k are bad and my 3rd cat is cleaning the exhaust and concealing the problem. I can't argue that but I wouldn't buy that logic. So if that is your contention, then you are also saying that my turbos were bad from day 1. I won't subscribe to that but I've been wrong before. Hope this is good insight for you all
 
I wonder how much  of that was built up carbon from the DI being burned out...Are you going to sell them?
 
No, I'm going to try and sell the SW cat back. With the stock cat back which has the 3rd cat the smoke is almost non detectable so I'm good with how it is now. I think I like the combo of catless DP's and stock cat back. I can't smell or see the smoke like I could before.

I'd love to get the upgraded turbos and try again the the SW cat back and go totally catless and see how it is but that's not in the plans for this car right now. Especially until some fueling options become more readily available with DI in this platform

Also I drove about 600 miles to burn off any assembly oil in the new exhaust just to be clear.
 
You can go with upgraded turbos with a meth kit and as another member has proven will make mid 400WHP pretty easily.
I would bet with the new ATP turbos in place all the smoke would go away.
 
4DRHTRD said:
You can go with upgraded turbos with a meth kit and as another member has proven will make mid 400WHP pretty easily.
I would bet with the new ATP turbos in place all the smoke would go away.

Was that A6?  He blew his engine not long after and parted it out to get rid of the car.  Everything was installed and custom tuned by LMS.... comforting :(
 
4DRHTRD said:
No, BPD Mike, pretty sure his car is still living with the ATP turbos. :)

Oh, that's right. 

Hopefully someone soon with catless dp's will replace the turbos to see if the smoke stops immediately.  Will be interesting to know for 100% sure!
 
If the gaskets expand with heat removing the cat would lower the sustained temperature causing the gaskets to shrink and let oil past. Correct? That's a big assumption. All this could just be that the cats do an excellent job of hiding the problems from day one.
 
Just put the catless DP's on one week ago. '12 SHO w/PP running Livernois 4+/93 tune and 44K miles. No smoke from exhaust either at idle, WOT or decel.
 
So it's pretty clear my turbos are bad I guess....The cats are impressive in these cars and ford has done well to prevent turbo replacement....I guess that's why they put the 3rd cat on...To aid in keeping the smokeys off the road lol
 
Have you checked the intercooler and intake piping to see if there's oil/gunk there?  Could be PCV blowby burning out causing the smoke.  Seems too early for that, but ...
 
I dont have any cats, I still havent checked into it any further, but my 2011 has a little swirl of white smoke about 5 seconds after I do a WOT pull.
 
SRT82ECOBOOST said:
Half the people that have posted to this thread have said they have seen smoke after install. There is a fly in the ointment.
You're still making an incorrect assumption
 
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