Any experience installing Fabspeed CATs on 1983 QV model?

A call to Fabspeed should get you the answers. The cat I got from them years ago was a special offer they made to fchat members. They were very friendly then, don’t know about these days.

 

84-85 are completely different from 83, they have a single pipe, different size.

 

I don’t think Fabspeed makes cat for the 83 dual cat, their website says 84/85 but I would still call them and ask.

 

I know the question was specifically about Fabspeed cats but it would be a lot cheaper, easier and just as effective to have generic cats installed at a local exhaust/muffler shop. You don't have to worry about fitting, that's what muffler shops do!

 

I haven't compared but I can't imagine how they could possibly be the same size. The 83 is about 1 3/4 inches, the single 84-85 would have to be 3/4 of an inch larger or 2 1/2 inches to match the area of the 83. Just by eyeballing the two I'd say that's about right.

Anyway, here's a link to carid that lists a cat for an 83 if it's of any help.

https://www.carid.com/1983-ferrari-308-exhaust-parts/

 

Don't get too concerned with what are commonly called "high performance" Cats. The difference between a "high performance" Cat and a modern 'standard' Cat is that high performance Cats are commonly chrome-plated/otherwise very shiny and cost 4 or 5x as much money and claim more HP. BUT The 'performance increase' they offer is in the minds and words of marketing execs.

When somebody is trying to sell you their aftermarket muffler or cat because it will " increase horsepower and torque by [whatever figure]," assume that although they may not be flat-out lying , they are not truthin' either...

I have seen, and been directly involved in several claims about such HP increases (and other "performance-enhancing" auto product claims) and virtually all of them involve the most important aspect of the magicians art - misdirection. One of them for a very well known performance muffler included a magazine ad claim of 13HP increase over stock as per the dyno results which were included in the ad. So it MUST be true, right? THERE IT IS, right there on the dyno!!!

In reality, on the dyno (I was doing the dyno runs) the aftermarket muffler DID add 13 HP... over a clapped out, clogged OEM muffler. But it produced 7 HP LESS than a new OEM muffler. SO...were they lying when they claimed 13 HP over stock? No, they just left out some (rather important) info...

 

There is also a core difference anywhere from 200-100 cells resulting in less back pressure.

 

Hey Guys,
Phil here from Fabspeed. The two car are very different exhaust and you can see why our cats or cat bypass wont work.
For the 308 after 83 It has a single pipe into the muffler : it is part 14 on the diagram: 308 (85).PNG
On the pre- 83 and QV system there are two pipes going into the muffler: qv exhaut system.PNG

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Hi Phil,
You have a little bit of apples and oranges going on. Your top illustration is a catalytic version and the bottom is a non-catalytic version. The 1983 parts diagrams are harder to find, but the illustration below is the '83 with cats version showing two cats and a smaller muffler chamber.
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Brian,
That is great. Thank you for finding this, but is that of a QV? I have not seen any of the QV with cats on it. Can you send me the link to where you found that?

 

If you're going with a custom installed catalytic - I would suggest Magnaflow's universal spun converters. They use a metallic substrate (200cells per inch, as opposed to typical 600cpi or so). They're quite small and work really well, and different configurations might be available for the metallic substrate (pipe size & termination direction/offsets, etc.) I used one of these for one of my non F- vintage carbed car, and it works great. Really cleaned up the stench..

They're just dull stainless and turn golden colour pretty quickly.

I don't know the pipe size of the '83QV, but here's a starting point for you. Most of these are just 8" long, from inlet to outlet with a 4" body diameter, making it easy to fit almost anywhere and in anything. Not CARB compliant though.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/mpe-59956

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I posted it earlier, the ‘83 pipe size through the cats is 1 3/4 inch (45 mm)

 

Phillip, post #15 Is for the 1983 QV and only 1983 QV has the two cats which are different size from the single cat 84QV and 85QV.

 

Can you give me the site you found this? I need to compare part numbers to see is ours will fit.

 

Why do you want catalytic(s) at all? I thought you were exempt in TX after 24 years, from emissions. I have an 83QV, which I received with hollowed out cats. It doesn't smoke or smell bad, so no motivation to install "real" ones. It's only slightly louder.

 

Re Texas, it depends on how you choose to register the car/how you plan to use it/where in Texas it is registered.

Some areas have emission inspections, some don't - for example, San Antonio doesn't; Dallas does. If you register it as a normal car, it has to be inspected annually, which includes emissions if the area requires it. If it's 25 years old it can be registered as an antique and does not have to pass any inspections but is limited to driving to/from events, to/from a shop doing work on it, etc. It can't (legally) be used to go to the grocery store, the local bar, whatever.

I removed the cat on my 328 because my 328's slow down light system does not work due to the failure of the module. I didn't want the cat in place without the ability to detect a problem with overheating. I suppose it wouldn't be all that difficult nowadays to find some sort of sensor system that would monitor the cat's temp and alert me if it overheats. But I admit I haven't done anything about that. But I should...I'd prefer the cat was there, which is a change of view for me from a few years ago.

I have changed my view of Cats on a car for a couple of reasons: Modern cats don't adversely affect performance and they do reduce air pollution. I never worried much about the latter but I have to admit that as I've gotten older, I've seen how the changes in emissions standards/vehicle testing have improved air quality in places that were notoriously bad years ago.

Yeah, I know the argument against a cat on these cars is typically, "I don't drive it that much so it doesn't have any real adverse effect." That used to be my view but I find myself steadily moving the other way. Absent the concern for a temperature monitoring system on these cars, there is no downside to having a modern cat on the car was far as the function of the vehicle is concerned.

 

True but you still need to look at it in context and understand the scale. A handful of Ferraris driven on Sunday compared to millions of people commuting every day in a pickup truck with a 5 liter engine. It's inconsequential. But if you want to view it simply on the principle I can respect that so long as we don't try to throw a guilt trip on anyone who, for one reason or another, has deleted certain emissions equipment on their own Ferrari.

and, for what it's worth, I lived in LA in the early 70's so I know fully well the importance of vehicle emissions controls. It was something that had to be done, there was no way out of it.

 

Concur re LA (and Mexico City). I lived in both for about the same amount of time and saw the air improve considerably as emissions regulations tightened. When you consider the performance of modern engines - FAR beyond what we thought was 'powerful' in the Muscle car era - it's frankly amazing. It's even more so when you consider the performance is achieved with minuscule emissions by comparison.

 

That's true Mike but the cars built between about '75 and '80 are chained to some abysmally crude devices and I'm of the mind that they should be exempt. The original draft of the California law did, in fact, have a 25 year rolling exemption but it was traded in a last minute compromise for the 1975 freeze. I think a major issue is that you just can't get a lot of this old equipment which makes it difficult to impossible to maintain compliance. There just aren't enough of these cars on the road to make any sort of impact, it's time they modified the regs and adopt the rolling exemption.