Check your cats...

[TCAT]

Originally Posted by PIC

I'll have to ask on Monday in our production meeting and ill let you know!

Any update on time frame?

[Rigzo510]

Originally Posted by PIC

I'll have to ask on Monday in our production meeting and ill let you know!

No word on the cats yet?

[jsharp]

Originally Posted by yotaman96

Btw, Kooks said the car was lean and that caused the cat to fail. They said it is not covered under warranty. After taking the heads off, I found the valves had bent due to piston contact. The Patriot Gold valve springs were defective.

So I wonder if they think all these people on this multipage thread all are lean???

[04GOAT-11SS]

I haven't read all of the last 20 pages in their entirety but from what I've read I didn't see much mentioned about engine operation affecting the converters life. When a converter oxidizes HC and CO or reduces NOx, heat is generated. This is why the outlet temperature of a converter is higher than the inlet temperature. So during a misfire (high HC levels), rich condition (High HC and CO) or any condition that would cause combustion peak temps above 2500*F (high NOx) your forcing the converter to work harder, generating more heat, making it more likely to fail and break down. This is why a misfire will cause the check engine light to flash. To worn the driver that the converter is potentially being damaged because of raw fuel (Hydrocarbon) overheating it.

With that, I'm not disagreeing about the poor quality of most aftermarket converters. Most fail at cleaning up the exhaust. Currently the EPA only requires that replacement converters be 70% efficient at cleaning up HC and CO while a lot of vehicle manufactures require 90% efficiency to keep the light off. This is the reason why I won't install an aftermarket converter on a customers car.

[TriGun]

Originally Posted by 04GOAT-11SS

I haven't read all of the last 20 pages in their entirety but from what I've read I didn't see much mentioned about engine operation affecting the converters life. When a converter oxidizes HC and CO or reduces NOx, heat is generated. This is why the outlet temperature of a converter is higher than the inlet temperature. So during a misfire (high HC levels), rich condition (High HC and CO) or any condition that would cause combustion peak temps above 2500*F (high NOx) your forcing the converter to work harder, generating more heat, making it more likely to fail and break down. This is why a misfire will cause the check engine light to flash. To worn the driver that the converter is potentially being damaged because of raw fuel (Hydrocarbon) overheating it.

So if your running rich all the time (not just at WOT) or have a misfire then your going to shorten the life of the converter.

With that, I'm not disagreeing about the poor quality of most aftermarket converters. Most fail at cleaning up the exhaust. Currently the EPA only requires that replacement converters be 70% efficient at cleaning up HC and CO while a lot of vehicle manufactures require 90% efficiency to keep the light off. This is the reason why I won't install an aftermarket converter on a customers car.

Actually rich condition will lower the cat temp. When the cat temp reaches a certain value the ECM add fuel to the mixture to cool the cats.

[04GOAT-11SS]

Maybe I wasn't looking at the full picture here. A rich condition causes high levels of Carbon Monoxide and low levels of O2 (as CO goes up O2 goes down). Naturally, oxygen is needed for oxidation. If the engine is running consistently rich and not switching lean (as it's designed to do in closed loop operation) there won't be enough O2 to oxidize the CO thus no heat generated.

During normal operation the AFR switches rich to lean from about 14.5-14.9:1 . The cerium between the reduction and oxidation catalyst stores oxygen during lean conditions and releases it during rich conditions. This allows CO to be oxidized even when pre-cat o2 content is momentarily low. If o2 content is consistently low, the cerium will have nothing to store. So, I stand corrected. An excessively rich condition shouldn't cause catalytic converter failure due to melting on 5th gens.

However, if the vehicle were equipped with an air injection system, the CO resulting from a rich condition would cause converter overheating as O2 would be introduced via the AIR pump.

[PIC]

Originally Posted by Rigzo510

No word on the cats yet?

Hey man, I'm really sorry for the long wait, I'll go into as much detail as I possibly can here. Basially, I work for the company that makes all the cores and housings and such for catalytic converters. We've been having to send them out to get coated which not only ups the price but makes the quality not as good as if we were to do it in house. Our owner started our own coating company that these cats will be sold through. Just last week they finished building the addition onto our building to house the new company. We are still waiting for this company to get rolling and everything before were able to really start marketing them. We are going to make them and they will be available at a very good price. I will try to get an expected date for you. Once again, Im sorry for the long wait. Thanks!

[PIC]

BTW guys.....we have our first couple of prototypes of these new cats installed on a
F1R procharged G8 GT making 870hp and havent seen any problems so far. Im sorry everybody for the wacky time frames and such, but when you start up a coating business, it takes a while to get all the necessary permits and such to run such a business. I will try to get a time frame fo you guys.

[james347]

Have TVS 2300 + Long Tubes and Cats. Driving around at least an hour, the engine temp, oil temp is good. The supercharger is only warm to the touch. Not hot at all. Car is custom tuned, probably helps a lot.

[PIC]

Originally Posted by james347

Have TVS 2300 + Long Tubes and Cats. Driving around at least an hour, the engine temp, oil temp is good. The supercharger is only warm to the touch. Not hot at all. Car is custom tuned, probably helps a lot.

What brand of headers are they?

[TCAT]

Are you guys willing to send out prototype cats to the people you wanted to test the cats for you?

[VanquisherSS]

Subscribed to this, I have a feeling I should be checking my cats :\

[NEGXXIS]

Just found out that I blew out my cats a couple of weeks ago.

They were Thunderbolt Mettalic cats 3" inlet and outlet

The cores broke loose from the housing and were rattling around, they moved so much that it started smashing up the rear and closing them off.
they have been Deleted now..lol

[PIC]

Originally Posted by TCAT

Are you guys willing to send out prototype cats to the people you wanted to test the cats for you?

Yes we will still be sending out prototypes to those that were told they would receive them. Owner told me today that we are in the January or February time frame as of right now. Unfortunately when a project like this comes along, we can't just drop everything and work on these since we have contracts we have to fulfill before anything else, but we still have been working on these for quite some time.