Exhaust damage vs boost
 

If you were to have a catylitic converter get damaged such that it were to get partially blocked, would you loose boost? Does anyone have experience with this?

Yup happened to my pypes performance x-pipe. You don't loose boost but you do go down on power.

What happened to yours?

I hit a brink in the middle of the road late one night. It hit the CAT at the front of it and put a giant dent in it and broke up all the stuff inside. Anyway from removing the cat I freed up some power. Those cats when clogged will hamper performance just enough. No cats no worries. I honestly want to get some heat sheilds welded in to make it look like I have cats since my o2 codes on the rears don't work.

I have an SLP x-pipe. So I think I will just pull it off and look at the dam thing.

What you should do is just get something to break apart all that stuff in their and run with out the cats. Don't they just check emission up their?

I actually want the cats. Why? I know it sounds corny, but I think it is environmentally sound. Also, I just had it dyno tuned and I don't want to risk changing anything. I hear ya, but not the route I want to go.

Also, the car is insanely loud...even louder with the blower.

I wanted Cats as well when I bought my X-pipe. Too obnoxious I think without em and it would lean it out a bit too much for my current tune. Emissions laws just changed here where my car will be exempt as of 2007..:clap: :clap: but cats are on just in case anyway.

I totally understand that.

The material inside the cats is brittle so any damage to the exterior of the cats will probably have damage to the inside. When my 3" cat broke the turbo whine was more noticable.

I tapped on it from the outside with a rubber mallet and I don't hear anything rattling. I just need to pull it off and look. I will give it a go later tonight and see what I find.

Just be glad you dont have a Subaru because there are cats before the turbo, and when they go, all hell breaks loose. And you can loose a couple of fins on the turbine if they get hit with chunks of your cat (fluffy too). And then your turbo is gone.