zangado1 Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 My latest update on the failed cats: Went to a new exhaust shop who are definitely more informative. The guy cut the one end of the cat off to expose the internal honeycomb ceramics to see if they are actually failing and he said that the ceramic material is not what's failing. According to him there is some type of high temp wrap that goes around the ceramic core while its assembled that gives a buffer to the outer casing. He said that that wrap is some how failing and burning up and allowing the internal ceramic core to dislodge and create all of the rattling I'm hearing. Sometimes it stops because it lodges itself in the encasement somehow I have noticed. So now because of my inspection coming up in May I'm going to have no choice but to find some decent used ones off of another 90's wagon and get them installed since there seems to be no other options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doublechaz Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 I'm dreading having mine fail after hearing what you've been through. Especially since I'm a little above stock on output. More heat to mess things up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zangado1 Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 I'm dreading having mine fail after hearing what you've been through. Especially since I'm a little above stock on output. More heat to mess things up. The guy at the last exhaust shop called me at the end of last week and told me he came across an OEM Subaru pair of cats off of a second gen with low miles he had in his storage above the shop. He said installed and out the door $250. Now my cats are clogged and the car is not accelerating properly. It feels like its running on two cylinders under full throttle on occasion. So I'm babying it until I can get up there. Im sick of this bullshit to be honest. If the car was a turbo like my LGT this wouldn't be happening. I'm surprised nobody else on here has had this issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doublechaz Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 I think lots of people don't care about cats and just hollow them out. Since it's my daily I want to be as clean as I can and being an L it's never going to be a race car so I don't worry much about the power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zangado1 Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 I think lots of people don't care about cats and just hollow them out. Since it's my daily I want to be as clean as I can and being an L it's never going to be a race car so I don't worry much about the power. To be honest I never have cats on any of my vehicles. My 05 LGT is catless but the Cobb access port takes care of the CEL. Believe me I want the cats off of my 95 DD but it sounds like I'm going to keep at least the front one for the fuel trim and my states emissions test because of its age. The 05 is a visual and only gets looked at if there is a CEL so I never have an issue with that car. I'm thinking before I buy the used OEM cats I'm going to try a straight pipe in place of the second cat with a plug fowler and see if that works. I have a OBDII reader that cancels out the CEL so I wont be annoyed. I'm just wondering about the emissions test. I might just buy an emissions sticker off one of the Mexicans on the job site and eliminate the hassle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brighton96 Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 I find it really hard to believe that you've had that many bad cats, that's horrible. But what about the muffler? It can be clogged up too, especially if it's full of water like the OEMs ones tend to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doublechaz Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 My OE muffler was quite plugged although I didn't see why when I cut it up. Anyway 6.5 PSI exhaust pressure with it on. Runs much better with the straight through I built. I'll find out what pressure once I get a TIG and add the extra bungs in front of the new cat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zangado1 Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 I find it really hard to believe that you've had that many bad cats, that's horrible. But what about the muffler? It can be clogged up too, especially if it's full of water like the OEMs ones tend to do. I have a center inlet center outlet Magnaflow with the one piece 6" tip I doubt that thing will clog up. I am seeing cat dust on my bumper from it blowing out through it. I do so much 80 MPH highway driving throughout the week I think that is part of the cat issues to be honest. Probably all the heat burning up that wrap around the honeycomb is where the problems lie. As I mentioned earlier I'm going to try to remove the second cat and see what that does with a fowler. And if that doesn't work I'm going back to 2 factory ones and be done with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brighton96 Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 Oh yeah, it's definitely not clogged unless a mouse got in there. You only have a few more years until it's antique and doesn't have to meet emissions regulations! So just buy stickers for the next couple years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zangado1 Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 Oh yeah, it's definitely not clogged unless a mouse got in there. You only have a few more years until it's antique and doesn't have to meet emissions regulations! So just buy stickers for the next couple years Well here is my latest update. I went to the exhaust guy and had him cut off the second cat and put a straight pipe in with a new bung and a spacer for the O2 sensor. But while he had it off he looked into the first cat and said that it hollowed out and empty? I said I didn't do that. He said that's why the second cat was clogged. Weird is I had no CEL? Now with it all back together what a difference in acceleration and more raspy with that Magnaflow on there. I already can see a fuel mileage increase and its been two days. I thought my fuel gage was broken! Only issue is now is I'm worried about inspection. I think I'm going to have to buy an emissions sticker for my month but get the car inspected honestly when its due. No CEL yet so I'm thrilled to say the least all around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.