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It seems to work… Get a rubber hammer from Autozone, get the car up as high as you can, (loft would be righteously awesome here,) wail on it wiht dead blows to the center, front, and rear of the catalytic converter.
“This is supposed to destroy the inside and loosen up stuff that can then be blown out, or create more airflow.”
Also works better when it’s hot, followed by a highway run, kinda like you stole it. 🙂
Hack way, for sure, but.. Has anyone (else) seen positive results? I kinda got sick of that P0420 and researched several methods to keep it off. I think I have arrived at that point.
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[quote=”cam0888″ post=148909]I will hazard a guess that you might get the trophy for the most stupid post.of 2015.[/quote]
Where’s my trophy at?
Nah. I was asking as to the method, how or why it either works or is ineffective.
Well, it probably destroys the honeycomb inside the cat… small loose parts may go through and get in the muffler and cause issues with that…
Flow may improve, yes… but totally negates what the cat is supposed to do…
I personally would never advise doing this…
Karl
It’s a good way, with gentle taps, to check the internal condition of the honeycomb by listening for rattles.
It’s not a great way to tune your car.
I suppose it all depends on what you mean by “work”.
What you are doing is destroying the ceramic honeycomb that the platinum and other alloys is coating. The OE condition is that the alloys on the ceramic heat up and burn the un-burnt fuel in your exhaust. Over time the honeycomb gets coated with carbon and eventually plugs up the CAT then you replace it. Or you can try cleaning it. Eric has a couple videos on that . YMMV on cleaning it.
You can get away with tapping it lightly to knock carbon off the honeycomb to see if doing so make the motor run better, but to bust it up you have destroyed the thing and eventually it will clog the muffler so you have to spend even more money when that comes up cause there aint no amount of beating on the muffler that will fix that problem.I forgot to mention.. I viewed a Youtube video (I know right) WHERE, in it, a guy with a 2003 Monte Carlo – a 3800, not a 4200 like the one discussed here – loosened up the bolts downstream of the cat, and the car ran great. This also likely allowed a channel for crud to escape.
I just drove it to Virginia and it seems to be running “pretty good” .. Probably as clean as it ever will get without either loosening bolts, as above, or taking it off the car.
Other hill-billy methods (?) involve loosening it up UPstream and letting Brake Cleaner soak in there when hot, etc. To clean it. Cleaning it off the car may do well, as well.. Overnight or two/three day (week long?) soaks in soapy water, MMO, ATF, ATF/Acetone mixes, repeat…
The best way to check your CAT is a $20-$30 laser temperature gauge. drive it get it hot and then take the temp of the pipe just in front of the CAT and the pipe just behind the CAT. The back should be much hotter. If it is the reverse your CAT is bad and needs to be replaced.
The rest of this stuff aside from taking it off to clean as in ETCG videos are not good ideas and might seriously damage your vehicle.Destroying a catalytic converter is not a good idea. Especially the way you mentioned. I have seen cars catch on fire cause pieces of that cat were reactive and heated up a part of the exhaust where there was no heat shield. This lit the carpet on fire inside. The car then caught fire and burnt to the ground. It was a 3rd gen firebird. I wish i could find the youtube video. You can see pieces of the cat coming out the tailpipe.
Well if it was a new vehicle i wouldn’t but i have old farm trucks we do some things to because the cat only is for emissions so if you dont mind and a mech is gonna charge you more to fix it then the vehicles worth i can tell you some things ive seen done some pretty crazy my first go to is take out the o2 sensor before the cat after that it should drive pretty much back to normal now that the exhaust is not building up pressure so we have figured out its your cat spray cfoam with a long straw in through the 02 sensor into the cat hole can put the 02 back in start ot let it smoke sometimes this works ive seen but never have done don’t realy approve but u rev your truck to about 2 or 3 thousand rpms get that cat hot spray water up your tail pipe it bust the cat it will jist all fall out in pieces now this vehicle was fairly old and muffler rusted out but it kept us from towing a piece junk work truck and we drove it for couple years after that but i wouldn’t try any of that ole stuff on a nice vehicle good luck and yeah bustn they cone will save your cat problem but prolly will sound ruff and rattle but ive never seen a muffler clog up if it could come off easy super hot soapy water works good
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