Civic VX catalytic converter
 

Does anyone know if the Fed VX (lean burn) came with a different catalytic converter than the California verision?

All this reading about lean burn keeps talking about the typical catalytic converter not working.

If you check on
https://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com and compare part numbers for the 49 state modle, and the CA modle, they will show that it is the exact same part number, so that would show that yes, they do use the exact same catalytic converter.

i'm also currently looking for one and so i wanted to make sure that when viewing this...

https://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...1)&vinsrch=yes

it should be #7 right? and the exhaust manifold encapsulates it? and it should be just a bolt on?

What's strange if you look at the '93 model it specifies a different converter for the CA model.

However my '92 VX CA model has a 5 wire oxygen sensor, and in '92 it shares the same part number as the 49 state or Federal model. But in '93 the oxygen sensor changes for the CA model. This seems to be consistent with what people find under the hood.

a few years ago I removed my converter to make sure that it wasn't cloged, and it was just 4 bolds on the top, and 3 on the bottem, the bottem bolts are easly gotten to while laying under the car and the top bolts you can get to from under the hood. but because of the heat, they will be rusty,so get smoe good penitrating lube liquid wrench and soak them a few times a few days befor you want to do the work, and if you can, order new nuts and bolts incase you maul them beyond reuse, and new gaskets are a good idea.

has anyone had any luck with magnaflow / carsound 22636?

That is the aftermarket one i used when I made my new exhaust system for my VX. One side you have to weld on the flange so you get teh proper alignment. Good stuff in my books.

Thanks Tom. Funny that it says its a direct fit on their website. So I thought it was just a bolt on. Didnt know you had to weld. Good to know.

The problem here is that the lion's share of aftermarket cats are weld-in. And when it comes to close-coupled style cats (as opposed to underbody cats), there are even fewer direct replacement cats. To make matters even worse, even 'bolt-in' style cats are generally quite halfass. Anyway, if you have a bad cat on a VX, a VERY common practice is to hollow out the stock cat, and have an underbody cat welded in. This is somewhat halfass, but can save HUNDREDS of dollars. And personally, I think close-coupled cats are stupid anyway. I have NO idea why Honda decided to go this route with cars like the HF/VX, as it is not beneficial in ANY way to fuel economy.

Do you think hollowing out the VX cat would be bad for FE...the exhaust velocities would be greatly reduced b/c it's basically dumped into a large volume, so you'd loose the scavenging effects. wonder how much a custom small diameter equal-length header could help??