To all those with decats on their car..is it normal for the exhaust to have occosional crackle and pop? Mines doing it after the decat..sounds lovely like a race car but just wanted to check with you guys if its normal or is something amiss?

A tiny bit perhaps, I put the cat back on now though.

Could that be a sign that it's running a bit rich or not?

yep mine does it on lift off when changing down a gear, love the sound!!

mine does it only when I'm testing a crappy rich prog or some odd settings that let rich mixtures on liftoff.

Mines does it when im off throttle at around 1500rpm, as the injectors havent cut off yet.

Ross

So bottom line is..is it normal or is it running too rich?

normalish I'd say for a tuned engine.

mine does it as well.. i believe it is normal.

mine does...

Normal, when i had my powerflow decat on my first coup it used to light the hedges up as it spat flames at night
i have a race cat now so no flames

Ahh ok..good to know then
...dunno if mine actually spits flames or not though..

Love it when its coming downhill on a low gear..sounds like an angry hippo coming!

it's easy to do the popping, just get high into the revs and then ease off, just tap the throttle and you will get it to pop

yep my coop all so pop's and bang's then spits a flame out here and there

Just trying to find out some info on decats...do they actually add much power/torque? my car is standard so far, but may buy a boost controller soon and up it to 1.1 bar. Are either of these mods likely to affect reliability?

cheers

ally

Mine pops sometimes if I change gear quickly

They might reduce the life of your turbo. If my car was standard I would keep it that way... but it's not

De-cats usually offer up about 10-14 BHP and similar torque, some say they reduce your turbo life but I'm yet to experience it.

ok thanks for the input guys

Mine pops quite a lot on over-run and I don't even have a de-cat, is there something wrong. I hope not because you can't beat a bit of popage

With the de-cat on mine pops and bangs on the over-run, it tends to chuck the odd flame out here and there, perfect for repelling granny's in micras on uphill stretches ive found

My new coupe does it aswell when lifting off the throttle, I don't belive it has a decat either but has got an after marker exhaust!??
The old coupe had a Miltek sports cat and supersprint cat back and I never heard that pop

De-cats DO NOT reduce turbo life, they generate faster spool up for your turbo. Think of cars like the Escort RS TURBO and other turbo-charged cars before cats.....you don't need backpressure it's a turbo! It wants to get gases out asap!

yep, but they (FIAT/garett) seem to be cutting corners on the turbos fitted on cat models as the seals on the turbo go because of lack of back pressure. My turbo which comes from a Cosworth apparently hasn't got that problem, your stock turbo maybe susceptible to it may not. I also assume that driving style gets in the equation so if you drive like you stole it, I doubt you'll get much out of the turbo, if you drive miss Daisy it may last an eternity, but I think we're off-topic already.

i get a occasional little flame with my turbo back blue flame with decat

I was under the understanding that a de-cat can cause the turbo seals to go???

Doh! You could roam the forum for hours looking for a definitive answer to that one.

Most people will say that their decat wasnt responsible, other will, though i suspect the latter is more coincidence than anything.

Phill

My turbo seals have gone twice over the years - never had a de-cat.
well - don't I look stupid now

My exhaust spat a big flame out the mrs said following me the other night

(And now it's blowing lol)