Aod troubles

Was it a GM Saab?

 

Not yet. That happened, in the early eighties. Saab didn't let themselves get fully GMed. That led to their Chinesing

 

man its a shame the got the general, they we're pretty cool cars.

I took off the piping to expose the cats, I didn't see any broken combs from that angle. However when I turned the engine (sounds waayyy cooler) I saw only one cat emit fumes. could the other cat be broken from the side that i cant see? I even put a flat piece of wood up to it to feel any difference in the gasses being shot out. I felt less resistance with the one not emitting anything

 

just found out there are actually 4 cats, two coming from the mani and infront of the y pipe.
lol christ, isnt 4 cats a bit redundant compared to two really good ones?

 

The ones up front are oxidation (hydrocarbons), the rears are reduction (oxides of nitrogen).

 

It is possible for the front cat to have come apart and blocked the rear cat...it's what happened with my 5.0L Exploder, blowing out the exhaust manifolds.

 

I'm hoping I didn't fry the exauhst valves at this point.. since I'm removing them I can't decide to either gut and pipe the affected cat or just remove and weld a pipe in place. This is only a temporary fix until I can get new ones. Thankfully it's exempt from emissions, but I'm not sure what an inspector might do if he finds pipes welded in place of the precats.

Would the increase in excess gas cause the rears to expire prematurely?

 

No wonder you call your beloved vehicle an Exploder

 

If you don't have to worry about emissions testing, take a crowbar or BFS and bust all the ceramic from inside them so you only have the cases remaining. Then put them back on the car.

I got a tankful of water during Katrina which fouled my plugs. I changed them and was able to limp back to Memphis, but it fouled the plugs again and gorked the O2 sensor. I don't drive much locally but a couple of months later the plugs fouled again. This happened a couple of times until I figured it was the cat. It had melted in the center but still had enough around the edges to pass exhaust. I did the above and haven't had a problem since. I did put in new plugs, an O2 sensor and removed the EGR and cleaned all the carbon fouling inside of it.

 

Nothing like see-through cats to make one's day

 

Yeah, busting out the monolith is better from an inspection standpoint. I don't advocate gutting cat converters, but if you have driveability problems and need the car, it's a better alternative than the Shoe Sole Express.

 

At the old shop we offered this as an alternative to replacing a pricey Cadillac converter. Two people opted for this route. When I say “we” I mean the shop owner and the gray beard tech. I was against this method. It seemed like cutting corners and not something a professional shop should be doing. Plus it turned a $300 job into an $80 job and the money wasn’t exactly rolling in that place

 

Why is Boner's post showing up on my e-mail but not here?:

 

I deleted it as I felt I was being too repetitive

 

Wow! Cool. I always wondered why I would get scoops like that, now and then. I thought, it was one of those software fails, like when you post an image and it Xes until the day or two after before it starts showing up. I'll have to keep my eye out for unintended conversations meant to post those intimately related or just embarassing drunken babble or what. There could be money to make, threatening to post the blooper public. Should I delete your unintended post, as long as there is still time to do so?