Running catless...
Never have I seen a catless exhaust do this kind of damage. What went wrong? Even the heat shield should protect you I assume.
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The exhaust fan on the right turbo fail and flew out thru my tubi catless exhaust, which caused an oil leak from bearings in the turbo. Being that I was under full throttle, the exhaust turned into a BLOW TORCH, catching only the rear plastic on fire. Track went red flag. I was running at Homestead Speedways road course.
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That's really a pity.
Was temperature a factor?
The reason I ask is a friend of mine had a tuned car on the track running a bit too much boost for the altitude. His turbo appeared to have overheated (maybe overspun too, hard to say) and the exhaust turbine turned to mush and blew apart. It hit his cat on the way out and stopped there. There was no fire or other damage besides the turbo, cat, and the pipes in that area as the cat essentially acted as a fence and stopped it. But if he were catless the temperature would have been lower and that particular failure wouldn't have happened at all. So while it was far better than a blowtorch type failure event, in his case if he were catless the failure probably wouldn't have happened at all.
Usually running a car catless on the street is illegal, environmentally unfriendly, and possibly sooty with smells of fuel vapor. It also allows a tune to utilize a richer A/F ratio which reduces upstream heat (and rich AFRs potentially free up a bit of power, haven't read up on flat 6s but it did help Ducati's pancake v-twins), improves flow and therefore performance/power, weighs a touch less, and enables rich tunes to spit flames out of the muffler as the cat isn't there to catch them. Finally it's a bit louder as the cat muffles sound a bit.
Was temperature a factor?
The reason I ask is a friend of mine had a tuned car on the track running a bit too much boost for the altitude. His turbo appeared to have overheated (maybe overspun too, hard to say) and the exhaust turbine turned to mush and blew apart. It hit his cat on the way out and stopped there. There was no fire or other damage besides the turbo, cat, and the pipes in that area as the cat essentially acted as a fence and stopped it. But if he were catless the temperature would have been lower and that particular failure wouldn't have happened at all. So while it was far better than a blowtorch type failure event, in his case if he were catless the failure probably wouldn't have happened at all.
Usually running a car catless on the street is illegal, environmentally unfriendly, and possibly sooty with smells of fuel vapor. It also allows a tune to utilize a richer A/F ratio which reduces upstream heat (and rich AFRs potentially free up a bit of power, haven't read up on flat 6s but it did help Ducati's pancake v-twins), improves flow and therefore performance/power, weighs a touch less, and enables rich tunes to spit flames out of the muffler as the cat isn't there to catch them. Finally it's a bit louder as the cat muffles sound a bit.
Last edited by _ace_; Aug 6, 2017 at 03:54 PM.
Outcome would have been the same. The failure inside the turbo caused an oil leak which is caused the fire. The fire would have found it's way out of the exhaust with or without cats.
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Thanks Tom.
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my car is back together, new backend and wrapped, satin black with gold specks:
Looks really nice Karl. Glad to see her back together. I must say, I agree that with cats the heat would have no where to go. You would have possibly had issues sooner. There are lots of cars out there shooting flames on the reg right out the back.
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Did insurance pay for that or you?
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I tried to make claim, told them car caught on fire due to blown Turbo.
They said were , I said in Homestead ,Fl. Then they asked what street.
Well being basically and honest person, I said homestead speedway.
i already read my policy and the car was covered for fire. BUT, it also stated absolutely no coverage on any racetrack. I said but is was a fire!!! not a accident! They call me in less then a hour and said NO!!
THATS LIFE
They said were , I said in Homestead ,Fl. Then they asked what street.
Well being basically and honest person, I said homestead speedway.
i already read my policy and the car was covered for fire. BUT, it also stated absolutely no coverage on any racetrack. I said but is was a fire!!! not a accident! They call me in less then a hour and said NO!!
THATS LIFE
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I tried to make claim, told them car caught on fire due to blown Turbo.
They said were , I said in Homestead ,Fl. Then they asked what street.
Well being basically and honest person, I said homestead speedway.
i already read my policy and the car was covered for fire. BUT, it also stated absolutely no coverage on any racetrack. I said but is was a fire!!! not a accident! They call me in less then a hour and said NO!!
THATS LIFE
They said were , I said in Homestead ,Fl. Then they asked what street.
Well being basically and honest person, I said homestead speedway.
i already read my policy and the car was covered for fire. BUT, it also stated absolutely no coverage on any racetrack. I said but is was a fire!!! not a accident! They call me in less then a hour and said NO!!
THATS LIFE
Ouch how much did that cost to fix?? This is why I get track insurance.
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I REALLY DO NOT KNOW.
But because it was a mechanical failure, and no accident was involved, I bet track insurance would not cover it
But because it was a mechanical failure, and no accident was involved, I bet track insurance would not cover it
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Interested in both your Cobb and Kline. Would you please PM me?
I went with catless Kline and no regrets. A little more volume at idle and cruising speed but WOT was the biggest difference. Throttle response greatly improved along with increased torque. No gas smell, soot, or drone. COBB AP took care of CEL.
BtW, just sold my car so COBB and Kline are for sale.
BtW, just sold my car so COBB and Kline are for sale.