cyberd0rk

Just installed a TSP catted , long tubes, and a cat back. The exhaust smells pretty strong. TSP has a disclaimer that they are not made to be emissions compliant. They do not supply rear o2 bungs, so I do not have active rear o2 sensors. I thought that even with cats, I should not have much of a strong exhaust smell. I'm not sure if the car is tuned or not, but the codes have been disabled. Debating it if it's worth getting a frost tune to try and lean things out a bit and try and get rid of the smell. Does anyone have the TSP catted Y and still experience a strong exhaust smell, or do you recommend I go ahead and get a mail in tune?

JD_AMG

If you just installed the parts how do you not know if the car has been tuned or not?
The cats you got are probably high flow cats, so not packed out like real cats so there may be some fuel smell, also the fact that you just installed this stuff so there will be some smell as anything that is on the exhaust is being burnt off.
I would get a dyno tune, will be much more spot on and they can check your air/fuel ratio, you can definitely lessen the fuel smell with a proper tune.

cyberd0rk

Sorry by "just" installed I mean ~500 miles ago. I don't smell the header paint or see fumes anymore from that so I'm figuring that is done burning off. I'm not sure if it's been tuned, I only know that the codes have been disabled.

JD_AMG

This is what im not understanding, you are not telling the whole story. Did you install the exhaust yourself or some shop and they deleted the codes? Or did you buy the car this way and not sure if the previous owner tuned it?
How do you know if its tuned or not? - you need to ask whoever turned off the codes if they tuned it as well.

cyberd0rk

I bought it this way. Long story short I myself replaced an off-road x and race headers with headers with emissions bungs, catted Y, and cat back for Maryland inspections requirements. The previous owner bought it with the x pipe and codes already tuned out. He didn't know either. At this point it's a total guessing game until I get a tune.

michaelw911

iTrader: (1)

cyberd0rk,

I had the same problem as you. I ordered the tsp catted pipe, and it smelled like poison at every stop.

The fix is likely your front o2 sensors not reading any voltage, making your ecu think that your car is running lean. The ecu then uses more gas to try and fix the lean, but ends up making your car super rich(bad smell).

Check your obd2 scanner. If you have codes :
P0151: O2 Sensor Circuit Low Voltage (Bank 2 Sensor 1)

P0131: O2 Sensor Circuit Low Voltage (Bank 1 Sensor 1)

Your front o2 sensors might need replacing. I bought two Denso 234-4617 from amazon, and my smell went away/

If you have the torque app, and bluetooth obd2, you can actually monitor your o2 sensor voltage in real time to verify my suspicions.

cyberd0rk

I assume I would be getting a check engine light with these codes, correct? I ordered two used o2 sensors off of ebay to meet MD inspections requirements which thankfully only verify visually that they're on the car, not activated. Maybe I'll switch those around and see if I get lucky and they act better (doubtful since they were used). Damn near choked myself out sitting in the line for the emissions testing this past weekend. Passed thankfully since the computer has codes tuned out. Anyone with a nose could smell that the vehicle isn't passing emissions if it had to do a sniffer test.

michaelw911

iTrader: (1)

Sometimes those codes will appear as "pending faults" and will not trigger a service engine light. I got a frost tune a while back, thinking that it would solve my issues, but it did not. All he does is delete the rear o2 sensor fault codes(regarding o2 sensors).

I would order the o2s from amazon since they have a great return policy, and it fixed my tsp catted y pipe rich smelling problem.

cyberd0rk

Alright, won't argue with a cheaper alternative that could solve my problem. Thank you for the help.

cyberd0rk

Now that I think about it, the car became noticeably stronger smelling after I decided to try Seafoam "Top Engine Cleaner". Perhaps all of the burn off fouled out my o2 sensors.

michaelw911

iTrader: (1)

Be sure to update us!

cyberd0rk

Just ordered 2 through Walmart of all places. Went with the long wire model just to avoid and unforeseen problems. Crossing my fingers.

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

O2 sensors are kind of helpless when you move to
long tubes (which would be why the TSP Y in the
first place). Fresh ones will go sleepy in short order.
Then your fuel trims come up and also, O2 feedback
becomes super slow meaning your mixture swings
wide all the time at idle and low pedal. Cats can only
work when you have a nice finely chopped soup of
CO, O2, NOX to work against each other. Full time
lean or rich, and they got nuthin' to break down the
bad bits with (and a whole lot of one kind of bad bits).

It's too damn bad nobody makes NBO2s with more
heater power so they could work right in a cold tube.
Though I have seen some folks declare success from
gapping open the slots in the "thimble". Might look at
wrapping the collector near the sensor to cut the
close-in heat shedding but all of this is only incremental
measures.

cyberd0rk

It seems to have helped a little bit. When I immediately start the car, the smell is very strong but seems to mellow out compared to before. I haven't gotten much time to drive it since. Curious if I can smell it sitting at a stoplight with the windows down still.

michaelw911

iTrader: (1)

I think that the ecu takes a little time to adapt to the new o2 sensors.

If you have an android phone, the $5 torque app is really useful. You just need to buy a $20 bafx bluetooth obd2, and it tells you all of your car problems.

When I put the new o2s in my car, I saw the real time o2 readings adjust after a few drives.

cyberd0rk

I'm on iphone and have an app called OBD Fusion available. The o2 sensor readings are in voltages. Is this how that app is? I'm not familiar with how to make heads or tails of these voltages. How does Torque handle o2 readings?

michaelw911

iTrader: (1)

o2 readings are measured in voltages. A good voltage reading would be 0.4v-0.5v. Lower voltage means that the engine is running lean. Higher voltage means that the engine is running rich.

When my catted y pipe was smelling super bad, I was at 0v because my o2 sensors died.

Make sure you are looking at the front two sensors on your iphone, and hopefully they have numbers.

cyberd0rk

I just watched a video reviewing the OBD Fusion app and the o2 readings were jumping rapidly all the way from 0.10-0.90. Not sure if it'll be able to give me that accurate of a reading

michaelw911

iTrader: (1)

Not really sure anymore. Since I was experiencing the same exact problems as you before, and new o2 fixed it, I assumed it would work for you.

I would monitor your o2 voltage on your phone after a few drives to see if it is in the .4v range.

Hope you find out what it is!

cyberd0rk

The suggestion I believe definitely helped so thank you very much for your help. I'll do some further research with this app and at least it won't break the bank. Apparently there's in app purchases to be able to unlock brake system codes which I'm unfortunately tripping right now so it may be a two birds one stone kind of deal anyway.