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Fried my Cats ...

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Old Jul 27, 2003 | 10:14 PM
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Default Fried my Cats ...

Trying to setup/tune new cam with Edit. Made some changes ,warmed her up, and headed out for a 15- 20 min run to do some logging. Ran the best ,yet. Stopped in my bud's driveway (JLSRU75) and discussed what we still needed to correct/change. Luckily EFILive is still logging.In the middle of the discussion I ran her up to 4 grand to see how lean it was (wideband O2 and LTFTs) then continue discussion. Pull in the garage and I smell something burning. JLSRU75 checks under car -"Here it is !"
The CATS were glowing cherry-red. You could not put your hand between the seats and tunnel - it would burn.We used wet rags between the seats and tunnel, turned on a big shop fan and waited . Eventually we hosed them down.
What happened? Here is what we think happened . EFILive shows the entire time we sat in the driveay ,at idle, the PCM was pulling fuel (-12.5 both banks). The only time it went positive (LTFT) was when I ran it up to 4 Grand - was an excellent marker.
So the motor was running very rich as we sat in the driveway and this fed the cats. The result was the heat of combustion and increased tunnel temps.
I now have a very muffled exhaust note - cats are fried (melted ceramic core). So I'll go to Off-Road pipes and scratch the cats( no pun intended).
I have long tube headers and no rear O2 sensors. I assume the rear O2s are needed to calculate cat temps ( I know it's a calculated parameter). I did not go into Cat Overtemp (PCM),that I know of, and there are no codes.


If any of you Guys have any info please chime in. Guru's???
:yesnod: :yesnod: :yesnod:
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Old Jul 27, 2003 | 10:21 PM
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Default Re: Fried my Cats ... (binksZ06)

:eek:

More reason to run cat-less. ' hope everything comes out fine.
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Old Jul 27, 2003 | 10:25 PM
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Default Re: Fried my Cats ... (c5chris)

Cut those suckers out and have your tuner shut off the rear O2 sensors, You will have to tolerate the smell but it might even give you some additional power

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Old Jul 28, 2003 | 01:22 AM
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Default Re: Fried my Cats ... (binksZ06)

were these the stock cats or aftermarket? how many miles on them?
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Old Jul 28, 2003 | 06:14 AM
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Default Re: Fried my Cats ... (binksZ06)

the motor was running very rich as we sat in the driveway and this fed the cats.
That's exactly what happened.

You gotta really watch that when you are doing major changes. (speculation on my part follows) Aggresive cams can have a lot cylinder scavenging, which can push a lot of unburned stuff out the exhaust valve, down to the cats. So even if the mixture is not tecnically "rich" a cam might still blow a lot of fresh fuel down to the cats.

The rear O2's are for compliance afaik. I don't think they are used for anything else in the pcm.

I'm not a guru, but that's what cats do, burn HC before it goes out the tail. If you feed 'em a lot, they'll turn cherry red.

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Old Jul 28, 2003 | 07:20 AM
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Default Re: Fried my Cats ... (BLU-BY-U)

Aftemarket with about 35 miles on them. Not a defect - my fault = too rich.
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Old Jul 28, 2003 | 10:56 AM
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Default Re: Fried my Cats ... (larrysb)

the motor was running very rich as we sat in the driveway and this fed the cats.

That's exactly what happened.

You gotta really watch that when you are doing major changes. (speculation on my part follows) Aggresive cams can have a lot cylinder scavenging, which can push a lot of unburned stuff out the exhaust valve, down to the cats. So even if the mixture is not tecnically "rich" a cam might still blow a lot of fresh fuel down to the cats.

The rear O2's are for compliance afaik. I don't think they are used for anything else in the pcm.

I'm not a guru, but that's what cats do, burn HC before it goes out the tail. If you feed 'em a lot, they'll turn cherry red.
Yup. 239/251 with a 106 LSA :yesnod: ..not exactly efficient at low RPM. :thumbs:
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Old Jul 28, 2003 | 11:17 AM
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Default Re: Fried my Cats ... (binksZ06)

Yup. 239/251 with a 106 LSA :yesnod: ..not exactly efficient at low RPM. :thumbs:
Got to love that Grand AM Cup cam. What does she idle at, 2600 rpms :jester

Keith

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Old Jul 28, 2003 | 11:32 AM
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Default Re: Fried my Cats ... (kromberg)

What brand of cats were they?
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Old Jul 28, 2003 | 12:22 PM
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Default Re: Fried my Cats ... (kromberg)

Keith -Idles @ 1250 although set at 1400 in idle table. Any idea why I'm missing 150 RPM? Hmmm- I need to check this.
:yesnod:

eb02z06 - not sure whose they are. Bought from LGM last year along with long tubes.It's not a fault of the cats ...it's I'm a dumba** and toasted them. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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