Cats, I need some feedback / reccomendations

WhiteCobra95

Mod Dude
May 2, 2006
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143
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Gentlemen,

I need some advice and practical experience regarding your choice of catalyst brand / supplier.

For a long time now I've been getting sick of driving my '95 with the off-road H-pipe and smelling like I've just finished mowing the lawn after a 30 minute drive. The better-half has complained about this issue for years, and I have to admit, I agree with her. I love the sound it makes without cats, even with the factory cat back, but I can't live with the fumes anymore. The problem is that I'm not sure which supplier to go with to solve this issue. This is becoming more important as my car does more street cruising and less track days now. Here are my experiences, thoughts, and questions given the limited number of choices:
  • The stock H-pipe is not going back on. It's horrible mess of bad pipe bends and four cats. Plus, it's really heavy! I have to admit thought, the stock configuration really did a good job at cleaning up the exhaust.
  • I purchased a stainless H-pipe with cats from Magnaflow approximately 10 years ago. It only lasted on my car for one summer. Besides the fact that it never quite fit right, the exhaust had that really horrible sulfur smell all of time, especially after a WOT pull. I spoke with several friends in the industry who all agreed that this was caused by low-dollar catalyst wash coats that are shy on nickel content. I ordered it new from Ebay so maybe it was a batch of seconds that someone was liquidating, I'll never know for sure. I hated to pull it because it was a really nicely constructed stainless piece, but the sulfur smell was way worse than raw HC, CO, and NOx smell. That's when I put the off-road H back on.
  • BBK offers some choices in H and X configurations, but they seem kind of pricey for aluminized pipes. Have you guys had good luck with their cats?
  • Bassani is another option and they are available in stainless. My biggest concern is whether or not they'll have the same bad sulfur small as the Magnalfows, especially since they're in the $650+ range. It would really be upsetting to lay out that kind of money for a premium brand and then have the farty exhaust smell again.
  • Another option is to drop my off-road H and weld in some small bullet cats. This would be with the hope that at idle they clean up the exhaust enough to make stop lights bearable, and during cruising or WOT runs it won't really matter. I'm not as big a fan of this option.
  • Magnaflow has some new X-pipes available for the SN95, but now they're $1000+ and I don't want to get burned by them again.
I'm not sure what it is about this car or if I'm just getting too old for nasty smelling exhaust, but my old 460 powered drag cars never bothered me as much as this one's exhaust does.

Please let me know what you think and what experiences you've had putting cats back on your cars. I'm open to and appreciative of all recommendations!
 
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I have used Bassani X-pipes on my 1992 GT and my 2000 GT autocross cars for many years. The quality is great, and I've never experienced a bad smell from the cats.

I use a TruBendz X-pipe on my 2004 V6 autocross car. It's aluminized, not stainless, but after 4 years, it only has minor surface rust on the welds. I've never experienced a bad smell with the TruBendz X-pipe. They make one for 94-98 Mustangs. At $315, it's very good bang for the buck.

It's worth mentioning that none of these cars are daily driven. But, they are driven to and from events, have been driven in the rain, and have been driven pretty hard at many autocross events.
 
Because there completion left the market, and price of raw materials went up.

I payed $500ish for Bassani catted x about a year ago, now they are mid $600?

ever since the EPA crackdown, slim pickings
 
I have an older mid 90's BBK X pipe on my stock 93 and it smells like the stock ones.

If I had to buy it today I would choose BBK or Bassani.

The exhaust is still going through the factory mufflers too.

Get new O2 sensors when you install the X pipe.
 
And the longer the thread goes...the more conflicting “opinions” you’ll get..

Its a rabbit hole.
Did I mention these are my favorite loud cats, even though they can smell?

BBK, Bassani, or put Magnaflow cats in your mid pipe.
 

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Do any of you guys running catalytic converters not have the smog pump system installed? It’s my understanding that it was needed to keep the factory cats from clogging. I too have been thinking about installing the Flowmaster cats in my h pipe, but my smog pump is long gone so I worried about having issues with them.
 
No. I spoke with bassani tech, and they said it wasn’t needed for their x-pipe.

regardless, not like the air pump would do much in my case. The tube connects after the cats. I deleted the air pump and the solenoids.

E002C34F-3979-4AAF-85A1-E9F0EFDB3E15.jpeg
 
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I don't have any recommendations on the pipe, but I did work at a local repair shop years ago that specialized in emission repairs. The way they taught me was that was how new catalytic converters smelled at operating temp. That was a little over 15 years ago so I'm not sure if anything has changed or if that was just for budget catalytic converters.
 
No. I spoke with bassani tech, and they said it wasn’t needed for their x-pipe.

regardless, not like the air pump would do much in my case. The tube connects after the cats. I deleted the air pump and the solenoids.

E002C34F-3979-4AAF-85A1-E9F0EFDB3E15.jpeg
Cool thanks! All my smog stuff is deleted and turned off in the tune.
 
Aftermarket cats fail.
Sucks, but i find and believe it to be true.

The best kit (and not sure if it exists for a fox, but it does for other mustangs) is the bassani kit that comes with the X pipe, tubes from header, 2 cats and 2 tubes to replace the cats.
It's extremely adjustable and should the cats fail, they are easy to pull out and swap in new ones.

I don't love the idea of welding them into stainless, since it's not a type of welding everyone has the capacity to do.
 
If you like the rest of the exhaust, here is another option.

And here is a steal on magnaflow 2.5” ones.