Ok guys, I've spent the last few days going over almost every loss of power/cat failure thread and I'm still pressed on what to think so it's time to get some newer info to see if anyone has experienced the same thing latley. So here's the story--- I've been hearing this odd metallic whirring? sound coming in around 7K and staying all the way to redline. This is accompanied by a moderate power loss and when I shift into second from a 1st gear redline, the car slightly bogs/hesitates before accelerating again (will NOT chirp tires). It kinda freaks me out to hear that sound, but it doesn't sound like detonation. Anyways I've had my cat replaced once around 25K. I didn't really notice this until around 28K. That brings us to today, car has 33K and I just got done installing my custom yukon coil setup and new spark plugs and it STILL does this. I was hoping the coils and plugs would solve the problem. My car has never had any problems besides the cat failure, no issues with warm starts, idles solid before and after the new ignition and I have NO CEL. Also reset NVRAM and KAM after the install. I'm leaning towards the cat becoming clogged but I've also read a few things about the SSV and VDI which I'm not too familiar with yet. I'm sorry for the long post as I might have already figured it out for myself, but I just want to get as many opinions as possible. Thanks for the help guys.

 

Anyone? I really don't wanna drive the car until I get your opinions on this, and if I have to, order a midpipe.

 

Ok so an old friend of mine who used to have an rx8 was cleaning out his garage and came across a bunch of parts. And what do you know?.......one of them happened to be an obx midpipe. Yes I know, not the best but he gave it to me for free. Its in very good shape and the install was smooth, besides having to pick up a few nuts. So finally after getting that installed I got to drive it.......and......my assumptions were right. The cat was becoming clogged. Only weird thing is is that both sections of honeycomb looked fine. Looking through the o2 sensor hole doesnt show much for the second section, but everything looked legit. Oh well, the car feels awesome and it doesn't sound too bad. I did read on some other thread about someone heat tape wrapping it to elimate the rasp. So my question is to anyone who has done it is does the heat wrapping really remove the rasp? And is there a certain wrap to get to withstand rotary exhaust heat? I appreciate the help.

 

Exhaust wrap
http://www.designengineering.com/cat...ps-accessories

 

Thanks. Just ordered some of the stuff thats rated from 1800-2500F. Just hope it gets rid of the rasp!

 

how far are you from the IL border? I have a stock cat just sitting around that i would like to sell

 

I'd say I'm around 250 miles north of the border. Thanks on the cat but I'll pass. I like the midpipe and my stock cat is good enough to use in case of having to take the car the stealership, but not for spirited driving. If I had the extra cash I would probably buy it, but right now I'm jobless and trying to rid of some parts on here too!