Help Please! Removing Cats from OEM Manifolds

[jwinger]

Hi all!

Hoping someone can help me with this query! 

I've got a 2020 Exige 410 which is already a bit of a project!

I've read a lot of horror stories about the OEM cats built into the headers/manifolds overheating and causing engine damage. Unlike a lot of what you read on the internet, this had been supported by conversations with a few well known Lotus independents.

This weakness can be addressed by replacing them with aftermarket manifolds by going to a Jubu or Komotec 460 kit which I've been looking into. But that solves one vulnerability and opens up a whole bunch of other potential work as it takes things like OEM pistons to close to their limits

So...

My question is...does anyone know of any option to switch the manifolds to something that replicates the OEM level of flow, but with a SEPARATE after market cat (presumably 600 cell to replicate original flow??? as opposed to a 200 cell sports cat).

Had anyone found a solution for this? Staying at existing power or going to 430 (or something below the sort of 460 level that can trigger a bunch of other work) whilst loosing the cats built into the standard OEM manifold?

Hope that all makes sense and thanks in advance for any input.

[jwinger]

Bumping this up...any ideas anyone?

[jwinger]

Bump!

[jmcvaughn]

Is this for track use or road use? For road use I doubt this will be an issue.

Plenty with the Komo-Tec kits haven't had any issues even with track usage. That'll likely be OK too.

Might be worth reaching out to SeriouslyLotus/Hangar111 and seeing if there would be any issues moving to one of the 200-cell cat systems (e.g. 2Bular, Komo-Tec) without the tune? Decat systems (e.g. Aerie Performance) don't require a tune so I'd imagine these would be similar?

[jwinger]

Mostly road use to be honest, odd bit of track here and there mostly. When I spoke to Dave a while back from seriously lotus I'm sure he said stuff without a tune works (the car adjusts normally) but isn't so good for the car long term, as when you go pedal to metal the auto adjustment sort of goes out the window and it reverts to stock tune. Thanks for response btw

[jmcvaughn]

Yeah that sounds about right. Dave from Hangar 111: 

Honestly, if it's predominantly road use, you'll probably be OK. Otherwise, worth speaking to an SL/H111 to see if they can do a variation of the EX430 tune or similar, but with the headers it makes more sense at that point to go EX475 instead. Plenty are running EX460 and EX475 for track use without issue; make of that what you will