M50 swap without cat? Damper suggestions? Soundclips?

[Koen]

I'm right in the middle of an M50 swap and trying to decide on the exhaust system. I'm basically going to buy spaghetti headers with downpipes off eBay or something and fit & weld the rest of the exhaust myself.

Now I'm considering leaving the cat out and running straight pipes from the headers to the damper (or is it called muffler?). I've read that the stock M50 damper sounds very raw without a cat, so I was wondering whether anyone has tried this before and what it sounds like. And which dampers would sound nice with a setup like this.

I wouldn't mind it being louder than stock, as long as it's not douchebag-loud if you know what I mean.

[Koen]

Anyone?

[spiDmang]

Would love to know this too..

[nando]

why don't you just run a cat?

everyone on this site thinks you're going to get a bazillion HP without a cat. it's just going to be louder and likely smell like fuel. with straight pipes, no cat, and a single muffler, it's going to be really loud. if you're 19, it's cool, but otherwise.. a quality cat doesn't add much restriction.

[Koen]

It's not like that ;) I'm not expecting to gain power. I just want to leave it out if possible because it's an expensive part (upwards of 500 euros) and I don't really see much use for it other than sound damping. Speaking of which, I might as well use a normal damper instead.

So how loud IS "really loud"?

[CarsSuck]

well my brother, for some damn reason, decided to gut out the cat on his e36. The results were pretty embarrassing. It was really loud and very smelly to drive behind. It will sound much better with the catalyst or a really large muffler/resonator setup. Did I mention its obvious from the exhaust smell? Will that fly in the Netherlands?

[nando]

It's not like that ;) I'm not expecting to gain power. I just want to leave it out if possible because it's an expensive part (upwards of 500 euros) and I don't really see much use for it other than sound damping. Speaking of which, I might as well use a normal damper instead.

So how loud IS "really loud"?

you can get an aftermarket, decent quality, high flow cat for like $100-200 from the states.

with a single muffler and nothing else, it's definitely going to be "piss off my neighbors" loud. if you use the stock muffler it might be a bit less annoying than that, but it would still be too loud for my taste.

[Koen]

@ Will: Thanks! Seems like it would be better to use a cat then. Concerning the law: as long as the exhaust gas has no more than 0.5% carbon monoxide it's OK for cars this age.

@ Nando: Heheh. I guess it will be too loud for my taste as well then. Thanks.