catatytic converter question

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Biggermens

Registered
I am looking to see if gutting out all of the catatytic converter will cause a problem ?? I have a 96 Mark VIII LSC and i find that the car dont have the pep it used to have and it smeels like rotten egs when you hamemr it i here that might be pluged up catatytic converter
the check engine light is not on yet
and thare is no admision law when i am
So will it cause a problem id i gut out all od my catatytic converter????

Thanks
 
You can remove the rearward converter -- the one not monitored -- with no ill effects on emissions.

Rotten egg smell is Hydrochloric acid. The car may be running too rich with poor air (no O2 needed to burn excess fuel.)

The car uses two monitored converters -- one on each side. Unless some one ran leaded fuel, I doubt it would plug up. Usually when they do plug up they have an internal cave in.

I would suggest you have a good exhaust guy to look at it.
 
That is some good info Thanks i will look to see if thare is anyting in the way of the intake like some animals nest or somting Like that, what els can cause the car to get not enought air ??
and if the cats are in one peace can i use brake cleen or soming to remove all the soot from it ??
all this started when i got a tank of 93 octaine in a small hick town and ever since then the car dont have anymore pep
one ford mecanic told me to change the fule filter that helped a bit
but when i first got the car at 80kph i would get around 33 to 35 Mpg on a flat hwy and now i get 27 to 30 Mpg

Thanks for your Help
 
Biggermens said:
That is some good info Thanks i will look to see if thare is anyting in the way of the intake like some animals nest or somting Like that, what els can cause the car to get not enought air ??
and if the cats are in one peace can i use brake cleen or soming to remove all the soot from it ??
all this started when i got a tank of 93 octaine in a small hick town and ever since then the car dont have anymore pep
one ford mecanic told me to change the fule filter that helped a bit
but when i first got the car at 80kph i would get around 33 to 35 Mpg on a flat hwy and now i get 27 to 30 Mpg

Thanks for your Help
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Put SeaFoam in the intake. It says it will clean the cats, but no one knows for sure. In any case, it can't hurt.
 
I've seen cars lose power and smell stronger (than the normal whiff) of rotten eggs before. The ones I saw had plugged up catalytic converters.
 
billcu said:
I've seen cars lose power and smell stronger (than the normal whiff) of rotten eggs before. The ones I saw had plugged up catalytic converters.
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Yeah, but if he has plugged up converters, he should get a pro to confirm that, instead of just blindly rodding them out. I believe that they are too emissions important and expensive to do a "dive bomb Charley" on that multiple choice.
 
I agree. If it was my car I'd loosen the pipes from the manifolds and drop them down a bit just for a quick test to see if it ran better first.

Also, I'd try to shake the converters while the bolts are loose. If they rattle, the cats are broken and that will clog them up.
 
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2/3 times that smell is caused by faulty O2 sensors... the other 1/3 is faulty cats.

You never mentioned if you changed the O2s?
 
You don’t say where you live but there are legalities in removing cat that could get you a fine, in NJ they are required to pass inspection.
 
I live in sudbury ontario canada over here thare are no admision testing
but now i see that the O2 sencor is after the 2 front cats so i cant gut them out i will have to replace them do anyone no of any high paformance cat for that ??

Thanks
 
I thought that the MK8 went to open loop at full throttle. The computer enriches the air/fuel mixture for hard acceleration so the O2 sensors would be operating outside of there usefull range therefore they can't supply usefull data and the computer ignores input from them. If this is true the problem is unlikely to be the O2 sensor for a full throttle symptom.

I believe that is the reason that car manufactures are going to wideband sensors these days.
 
Can i punch out all the cats and reprogram the computer to tell it that the o2 reding it is geting is now corect ???
is thare some kind of programer i can get that will do that ???

Thanks
 
Biggermens said:
Can i punch out all the cats and reprogram the computer to tell it that the o2 reding it is geting is now corect ???
is thare some kind of programer i can get that will do that ???

Thanks
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I know of no computer mods that would allow that.

I would advise that you do not rod out the cats. You do NOT want the hassle or the expense if you are caught. I do not know about Canadian laws, but they would defiantly put the screws to you if in the USA.
 
If you don't like the rotten egg smell now, you'll hate the smell if you punch out the cats.:)

Have you found a plugged up cat?
 
Why not troubleshoot what the problem is before punching out the cats? An engine running excessively rich will give that rotten egg smell and as I said the car goes open loop at full throttle so it wouldn't trip a code if it only happens when you get on it. Someone suggested that you go to a good exhaust shop to diagnose that it truley is the cats. That is your best bet. If it is a bad cat you can get an aftermarket universal fit high flow cat for a reasonable price. They don't rob as much HP as you think!
 
Its emissions, not admissions. If you have a plugged up cat you can tell with a digital infrared thermometer because one side will be way hotter than the other. However you would probably experience more than a loss of pep if you had a plugged up cat. The cars I have seen usually backfire and run like complete crap when a muffler or cat gives way.

+1 for O2s
 
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