During the engine cold start, there is a significantly increased emission of harmful engine exhaust gases, particularly at very low environmental temperatures. Therefore, reducing of emission during that period is of great importance for the reduction of entire engine emission. This study was conducted to test the activating speed of the catalyst at low environmental temperatures. The research was conducted by use of mathematical model and developed computer programme for calculation of non-stationary heat transfer in engine exhaust system. During the research, some of constructional parameters of exhaust system were adopted and optimized at environmental temperature of 22 C. The combination of design parameters giving best results at low environmental temperatures was observed. The results showed that the temperature in the environment did not have any significant influence on pre-catalyst light-off time.