Are Magnaflow high flow cats now illegal in California?

ASSISTANCE Stock Engine-Bay Components
1

I was looking for a high flow cat to replace my stock cat. Seems like a lot of the old threads have recommended the Magnaflow (Carsound) high flow cat. However, those are all old threads, and when I do a search online I find all of the sellers will not ship the Magnaflow high flow cats to California. Is this a new law? Are there any comparable bolt-on high flow cats out there legal in California?

2

anything not OEM is illegal, smog tech or state referee won’t pass unless you have a stock/OEM cat from the dealer or engine specific cat.
ex… if you run a 99 gsr,ls or B20 in your DA you need to have a obd2 cat.

I say screw it and just pay to make it pass.

3

amazon.com still ships magnaflow hi flow cats to california, then all you have to do is find a muffler shop willing to install an illegal cat

4

If you are worried, use these part numbers and you will be fine. May not be high flow but at least you won’t have to worry.

http://www.magnaflow.com/02catalytic_converters/02product/shopdisplayproducts.asp

Available parts for:
ACURA INTEGRA

California Catalog
Application Search Results
NOTE: D/S= Driver Side | P/S= Passenger Side

Year Description Product Type Part # Replaced By
1990 1.8L UNIVERSAL CATALYTIC CONVERTER § 36304
1990 1.8L DIRECT FIT CATALYTIC CONVERTER § 36636

Please Note (Per Federal Standards): If you’re in California and you have a California Registered vehicle you must search our California Catalog. If your vehicle is registered outside of California please search our 49-State (USA) & Canada Catalog.

Some converter applications may require the re-use or replacement of OEM gaskets.

NOTE: D/S= Driver Side | P/S= Passenger Side

5

Thanks everyone. After a lot of searching found one supplier in California who is selling them online. They’re probably skirting the law. I ordered one anyway. Plan to keep my stock cat and swap in for smog checks every couple of years.

6

im in SAC and muffler shops still install them and the warehouse i work at still sells them…sooo uhh yea

7

[QUOTE=da6xsi06;2257426]anything not OEM is illegal, smog tech or state referee won’t pass unless you have a stock/OEM cat from the dealer or engine specific cat.
ex… if you run a 99 gsr,ls or B20 in your DA you need to have a obd2 cat.

I say screw it and just pay to make it pass.[/QUOTE]

Hmmm So any universal replacement that is carb approved would fail visual? I just bought a 2.5" magnaflow cat. It is carb approved and the right Obd spec.

8

You should be fine. You could always ask the tech to do a pre visual on the cat before doing anything.

9

man id hate to deal wth all the cali restrictions but the weather is so nice i bet

10

well that was the case for me, reff kept failing me since it wasn’t OEM from the factory.
magnflow is still aftermarket and a universal cat is not vehicle specific to my make and model.

11

when dealing with reffs its a bit different…theyre anal about OE spec so in that situation where youre getting it BAR’d then yea OE spec and make specific but if your stock its gonna be ok