Cats are about 50% of what you need to pass smog. If the emissions devices are not working correctly, no matter how good your cat is the car isn't going to pass. Some cars with correct emissions devices with new aftermarket non CARB approved cats will not pass. A lot really needs to be in order for your FD to pass smog. I make a lot of FDs pass smog. It is not easy.

EB Turbo

 

I passed Arizona emission with that 1/2 burned up 100K cat. Not in CA though but that is why I have the 10,000 miles pristine OEM cat as a spare.

 

Wow yeah sounds complicated. So cats are only half the problem then. Hope I really won't have such a problem. But I am pretty sure all of my other smog devices are working good and hopefully I won't have any problems with that.
But the question is, will I be able to pass smog with a 100+ mile cat?
And how bad are these cats after 100k? are they pretty much useless? and do they restrict airflow?

 

Most likely, No. The chances of everything working as designed for 100k mi and not doing any major damage to the cat in that time are very slim. I am not saying that it wont pass. I am saying typically with these cars things stop working, they run rich, misfires. All of those things do damage to a cat. just be prepared that is doesn't pass. Do you have the stock PreCat? If so Your chances are better that it will pass.

EB Turbo

 

I had a straight midpipe which was pretty loud and smelled like raw gas so I installed a RX7store hi flow cat and it hardly cut down on the noise.

The fumes are a lot less putrid once the cat heats up but still puffs some black smoke when I free rev it to redline is that normal? I have the airpump hooked up and the stock precat replaced with a 3" downpipe.

 

Yeah, I see. And yeah, I am definitely not getting my hopes up too much because i know passing smog with these cars is a pain in the back...
No, I have an am downpipe. But I do still have the stock pre cat laying around, so if I don't pass the first time then I will throw it on. But I have a freshly rebuilt motor so my chances of passing are better because of that.

 

hey pomanferrari (or anyone else running an aftermarket cat),
I was wondering how things worked out with the rx7store cat now that you've had it on the car for some time. I have a ~80k mile stock cat on my car and the exhaust overheat light seems to be popping up more often recently so I'm thinking the cat is probably pretty clogged at this point.

Were you guys able to pass CA emissions with the aftermarket cats?

 

Yes it passed but I had to tune for no more than 7 psi of boost, JDM fuel map with water injection starting at 3 psi of boost, fan not turned on until I was at 110 Celsius (I'm running Evans so there is no problem running the car at 110 to 126 Celsius, it won't boil over).

The tech had trouble with holding the 15 mph speed.

 

My experience with a Bonez hi-flow cat was that it worked fine for nearly 70k miles and over 10 yrs. No stink, low noise.