Originally Posted by nightfire (Post 121608)

Ok so I've read through the whole thread, but I have a question on all this (during these note that I live in NJ who is pretty heavy on the emissions testing)

If a person were to go with test pipes instead of HFC's could they just clear the CEL and prevent it from coming back on with a program such as UpREV by having it de-activate the second O2 sensor (to prevent any problems when getting inspected)?

I'm trying to figure out why everyone here (who almost everyone wants max performance N/A for now) are going with HFC's instead of test pipes.

Originally Posted by wstar (Post 121624)

It's going to vary by state, I know nothing about NJ. Here in TX you can generally get away with reprogramming around the CEL (as in, actually reprogramming the ECU), but just "clearing" it with a simple code-scanner won't usually cut it (because the OBD-II info the emissions testing place looks at shows whether a complete drive cycle has been performed since the last code clear, and they want to see it showing completed and free of codes). There's no inspection for the first 2 years on a new car though, so in TX you'd have two years to find an ECU solution before you ran into that issue.


Technically, even in TX, I think test pipes are illegal on public streets, but if you can suppress the codes with an ECU flash, you'll probably get away with it since many inspection places only care about the OBD-II readout.
I went the HFC route because at the time I was making the decision there was no ECU flashing available for the car at all yet, and I didn't want to be fighting clearing the codes all the time until one became available (having a CEL thrown randomly while you're driving and not knowing what it is sucks, gotta shut down, get out the scanner, confirm it's the O2, clear it, wait for it to happen again...).

Once I get an ECU flash going that can suppress the CELs effectively, I may decide to swap my HFCs for Test Pipes at that point, if the rasp isn't too bad (maybe resonated ones would help).

Originally Posted by BerkTech (Post 58137)

The ECU will only look at the secondary O2 sensor during closed loop operation (i.e. lean burn, steady freeway cruise, idle, etc). The ECU will make small adjustments to the fuel trims based on the small adjustments made during closed loop operation. This is on the order of a few percentage points. I don't recall ever seeing anything over +/-5% in the last couple of years.

If you guys have ever called Berk for tech support you've heard us say, "Clear the ECU learned values before running the HFC's. You will run less of a chance of throwing a CEL light". Over time your ECU may have adjusted based on your driving habits. By clearing the fuel trims you give your ECU a chance to start back at zero and readjust to the new cats. The cat is in essence an oxygen storage device. When installing a BERK HFC that flows twice as much as the OEM cat it does not have enough contact time with the catalyst to "scrub" the exhaust gas and let the reaction occur. So the O2 readings will be different. Most of the time the thresholds of CEL or no CEL are large enough that the ECU will readapt and the CEL will stay off. However some of you who were already operating on the outer range will pass that threshold after a few drive cycles and illuminate the CEL light.

During driving situations where the engine sees load it will completely ignore the secondary O2 sensor and go off of it's pre-programs maps. On one of our race cars we actually did not use any O2 sensors at all! We would run completely off the pre-programed maps on the stand alone. We would make small tweaks to the maps for high altitude race tracks and summer/winter weather.

So, the moral of the story..... the secondary O2 sensors technically DO make tiny fuel adjustments in concert with the primary wide band sensor in the header, but only to make the car run as clean and lean as possible during steady cruise. From the stand point of the car enthusiast, they don't do squat! :)

And to set the record straight in plain black and white:

Berk HFC's are not SMOG legal in CA. Can they pass a sniffer test? Yes, all the time. But Berk Technology does not guarantee emmisions performance.

The vast majority of you will never thorw a CEL. However there is a very small percentage of you who will throw the occasional P0420/P0430 CEL. Down the road there will also be a very small percentage of you who throw those CEL codes with the OEM cats!

Hope that gives you some good info to chew on!

Cheers guys!
Berk Technology

Originally Posted by JvKintheUSA (Post 124600)

How do you "Clear the ECU learned values?"

Originally Posted by will abrahams (Post 279112)

My Berk HFCs arrived today!

earlier someone asked what the inside of the secondary O2 sensor ports look like. Im assuming they were wondering if they are completely open or have an anti-fouler like small opening.

Here is a pic, sorry for the poor quality.

Originally Posted by will abrahams (Post 279112)

My Berk HFCs arrived today!

earlier someone asked what the inside of the secondary O2 sensor ports look like. Im assuming they were wondering if they are completely open or have an anti-fouler like small opening.

Here is a pic, sorry for the poor quality.

Originally Posted by semtex (Post 279444)

Thx for posting that pic, Will!

Originally Posted by tranceformer (Post 55952)

I did the same with my 350z when I added a set of Fast Intentions testpipes. It worked just fine. It was a cheap and easy fix.

But for some reason when we installed a set of Helix v2 testpipes on my friend's 350z it didn't seem to work that well. The helix testpipes he had came with the built-in extensions for the o2 sensors, they kept throwing a code for some reason.

I never did like those kind of test pipes, I prefer the ones without the o2 sensor extensions.

Originally Posted by ZForce (Post 718460)

This thread is soooo old....dunno know why it's still getting posts. For what it's though, I have over 8k miles on my Berk HFC's with Nismo CBE and have not thrown a CEL.

Originally Posted by will abrahams (Post 279112)

My Berk HFCs arrived today!

earlier someone asked what the inside of the secondary O2 sensor ports look like. Im assuming they were wondering if they are completely open or have an anti-fouler like small opening.

Here is a pic, sorry for the poor quality.

as you can see, they drill a very small opening to replicate the anti fouler method. I plan on stuffing some steel wool in there too. I will see how it goes...

Originally Posted by RCZ (Post 55647)

We are going to run out of bolt ons soon :(

Originally Posted by kenhdcgov (Post 721213)

That is good news for sure!! I do have another question. Any idea reagrading your horsepower gain with the Berk's?? Thanks much for the 411!:driving: