I live in Oregon and we have emission testing here. We are looking at replacing the whole exhaust system and are wondering if we were to remove the thermal reator unit and replace it with straight header and cat will this cause us not to pass emmisions?

 

Most definitely yes. The TR/heat exchanger/air pump combo is the entire emissions system, and if you remove any one part of it then it all goes to hell.

 

So no header or is that possible still?

 

The header replaces the thermal reactor. So your emissions will go to **** with a header.

I have *heard* of people installing a header and a cat and running an air pump straight to the cat (bypassing the ACV) and having it pass, but I don't know how long that would last. Note that this technically is illegal, you can't legally install a cat on a car that originally did not have one.

 

Thanks peejay. We are going for speed and passing emmisions all at the same time.