From 4x4 to luxury

Key Keeper · Post by **Key Keeper** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 2:12 pm

Hmm hangup and on my part. After digging into this, apparently my car has the California OBD2 catalyst system on it.....well this header that will be here tomorrow will throw a CEL lamp for same dang thing possibly! Grrrr! They make a header for cali but its in the 1k$ range. Im going to try a couple different things.

1. Sparkplug defoulers 2ea to remove downtube sensors from exhaust stream.
2. Install dual output O2 simulator

Im hoping 1. will work since its a very cheap solution and retains the factory sensors (appearance). Will go 2. and hide the simulators near the ECM. From what I have read that I could just install the defoulers on the existing header and would fix the CEL lamp issue but I'd still be left with the loose honeycomb in the bank one cat.....so either way the header is going on the car. Will retain the backpressure so low end torque wont be affected. Im going to install the header with cats and see if it will be fine without 1/2 but in the event the annoying CEL comes back on, I'll have to "work around" this...why the hell doesnt anyone make a simulator that actually plugs right in! All this wiring crap I have to do at the ECM harness will be a small pain..

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 3:04 pm

I was going to say, if it's just a matter of the o2 sensors, you could have bungs welded in to put them where ever they need to be and use "mini" cats in line with the O2 sensors in those bungs to trick the ECM..

Good Luck!

eGo

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 3:05 pm

Here's a link :

http://www.bigdaddiesgarage.com/mini-cat-cel-fix.html

Key Keeper · Post by **Key Keeper** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:52 am

hmm, thats an interesting concept. Not sure how effective that small portion of honeycomb would be though.

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 10:00 am

Key Keeper wrote:hmm, thats an interesting concept. Not sure how effective that small portion of honeycomb would be though.

I know A LOT of guys that use these on their heavily modded daily drivers that run 10s... And they've never had an issue.

eGo

Key Keeper · Post by **Key Keeper** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 11:06 am

I will deffo look into this should my CEL remain on after I change out the header. Its out for delivery so looks like I'll be working on the car again this weekend lol.

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 8:16 pm

Sounds like you just need to get your ECU tuned for the new exhaust system. A good tuner should be able to tune out the cats completely for an off road use only.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 8:22 pm

not sure about the ECU tuning on a lexus. EvilHorace, please correct me, but aren't all lexus ECUs encrypted? i thought that's why there are basically zero performance upgrades for the engine in my car, etc...no one can tune them.

Key Keeper · Post by **Key Keeper** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:23 am

They are encrypted. One would think that the settings could be changed at lexus to ditch the cali emissions but they are tied to the vin number so thats out of the question as well. There are work arounds though.

Key Keeper · Post by **Key Keeper** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:34 am

Header pics.

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:07 am

My bother use to have an IS350 (I think) and it was a PITA to change the headers on.. lol But we still managed to do it in less than 2 hours..

eGo

Key Keeper · Post by **Key Keeper** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:44 am

Theres a ton of room on this GS. Take the air cleaner out, jack it up and all of the bolts are easy to get to. Only issue Im worried about are the studs breaking coming out of the head.

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:47 am

Yah, make sure you PB the hell out of them before you start.. The bottom left bolt in your 4th picture is the doozy because of pipe location.. lol

Key Keeper · Post by **Key Keeper** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 12:15 pm

MP! Love that stuff!

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:07 pm

eGoCeNTRoNiX wrote:Here's a link :

http://www.bigdaddiesgarage.com/mini-cat-cel-fix.html

Interesting, I'm going to have to remember this.