CI GS

So I pulled the X-pipe off the car this evening and, sure enough, one of the cats was toasted.
One of them was still okay, but the substrate in the other came apart and the majority of the core of it became dislodged from the cat housing and stuffed itself into the X-pipe. Now I know where the spike in boost came.
Here's a picture of it below.
So I dug them both out. What a chore that was! Judging by how tough the good one was, it must've taken a lot of heat and pressure to screw the damaged one up so bad.
Guess what Carson? I started it up a little while ago and there's no stinky gas smell. At least not for the 5 minutes or so I had it idling. I'll test it tomorrow on the road if the weather holds.

schpenxel

Awesome! Hopefully you get to be smell free

What brand headers are you running?

Chiselchst

That doesn't 't surprise me. I bought some tires & wheels from a '13 Callaway Vette, and he was making a MUCH less power than you and had toasted his cats real quick. He paid like 23k for all of the work, and I couldn't believe it...
Andy says the ZR1 cats are good - hoping he's right, cause I need mine to avoid the smog police...
That pic of the internals is crazy...

schpenxel

Z06 cats have survived on mine, for whatever that is worth

CI GS

I can't figure out what happened either, because the other cat was completely intact. That one was a real SOB to drill out. I had to drill it and then use a long prybar to keep crushing it up and digging it out, because the wood drill bit I was using kept tangling up with the metal substrate. These things are really tough. It took me longer to dig the damn things out than it took to pull the exhaust off and put it back on again! These are the cats that came with the Pfadt headers, BTW.
I don't know what they're supposed to look like when they fail from excessive heat, but this looked like the core simply collapsed under pressure. Come to think of it, some of the metal pieces I pulled out of the damaged one did looked a bit "blackened" though.
It's probably from all of that "testing" I did with a 12+:1 AFR (before schpenxel sorted out my tune for me) that compromised it.
I test drove the car just a little while ago. Can't say I can smell any exhaust fumes. Left the AC on outside air and still couldn't smell anything?? If I tried that with my truck I would need an oxygen mask!
It's quite a bit louder when you get on the go pedal, which I don't mind. You can hear the cam a little more at idle now too.
Peak boost hit 12.02psi at like 7000rpm (whilst doing a John Force burnout, manual shifting it through second gear) and the AFR isnt perfect (in that it fluctuates quite a bit) but on average is close to where it needs to be (mid elevens). This is a slightly tweaked tune, with 16.5* of max timing and a little richer PE equivalence ratio and I'm running Sunoco 104 in it. I didn't see any KR, although I haven't got to run it @ WOT through 4th gear as yet.
I only got a couple of short hits because it started drizzling just as I got to my "testing area", so I moved to another spot where I could only do a second gear WOT pull.
BTW: The M&Hs still can't hook this car on dry pavement in 1st or 2nd, even after the long burnout, even w/ 16psi in them.
I guess I'll have to stick the stock diff back in it at some point and sell the Z06 diff...

schpenxel

I'm starting to wonder how you haven't been arrested yet. On that island surely all the cops have to know what's about to happen every time you get that car out

CI GS

Sshhhh! Island? What island?? I was taking about the hypothetical runs that I made in Mexico this evening!
Thats the thing about small towns though, it works both ways, and everybody knows where the cops are too!
Besides, I know where I can find a good lawyer...

schpenxel

Ah yes, Mexico. My bad

Woodstoc

Ah Mexico......seems to be a lot of racing going on down there.....

CI GS

No racing. Just testing. For now...

Woodstoc

I thought I was going to be headed down your way, was going to look you up to meet you and take a ride in your car, but looks like the wife found something in Punta Cana. Maybe next year.

CI GS

That would've been cool. It is kinda boring down here though, unless you're into diving, fishing, etc.
Any of you guys on here are welcome to look me up if you come down though, even if it's just on a cruise for a day. I would be glad to show you around.

CI GS

Hahaha! It just dawned on me that you're going to MEXICO!!

Woodstoc

Actually Dominican Republic, Mexico just a bit too risky right now. I do like diving and fishing though. Your neck of the woods a bit on the expensive side for my American dollars, you guys put a heavy tax on us tourists, don't know how you locals stay afloat (pun intended) lol. Blue will take a chuck out of the old wallet...

CI GS

Oh, okay, don't know why I was thinking Punta Cana was Mexico. Must've been thinking about one of the other puntas.
The DR can be rough too though, from what I hear, so be careful. I have a few friends who visit there often, but, I suspect, for a certain other type of fishing and diving.
Cayman is relatively much safer, but it can be expensive, especially if you hit the high-end restaurants like Blue (you mean the Blue Restaurant at the Ritz, correct?) often. I wouldn't go near that place. Too many other good restaurants that are much more reasonable around. Our dollar being pegged at .80 to the USD doesn't help though. But trust me, it's easier on the wallet to visit than to live here all year round.
I get a kick when I hear people taking about us being "tax free". That's hilarious, because the Government actually taxes everything that's imported for local consumption, up front, as import duty. So we get to pay higher prices for everything on the shelf. But at least we don't need a tax consultant and an accounting firm to file returns every year. At least not yet...

CI GS

BTW: I did get to run the car from a standing start through most of 4th the other day, on the "race gas" tune, and the scan looked decent and the car ran flawless and pulls real nice, although the AFR is a bit on the rich side (10.9ish to 11.2ish for most of the run). I was worried that it might be running out of fuel up top, but it looks okay, going by the AFR. I'm still thinking of doing away with the BAP and going with the ECS stage 1 fuel system though.
Need to work on the launch now too, because it will rip the tires up something bad off the line, even just rolling slowly into the throttle. If I can't get it to hook better, I may pull the diff and trans back out at some point and send the converter back to FTI and have it restalled to 3200 rpm (it's a 3600) and put the stock 2.73 diff back in it. (I'm starting to sound ambitious like my friend Carson now!)
Going to pull the valve covers this weekend and check the valvetrain over and then install some Holley valve covers on it.
Happy weekend amigos!

schpenxel

Let me know if you need any tune help

ls1wolf

Ive been waiting for someone to do the Holley covers with the heartbeat. Can't wait for pictures

CI GS

Hopefully, I'll get it done today between all the other crap I need to do. Will definitely post up some pictures when it's done.

CI GS

Thanks buddy. I'll send you the most recent log later today for you to look at and tell me what you think. Something weird is going on with the idle adapt timing with this tune, BTW. I haven't taken a close look at the scan as yet, but you'll see what I'm talking about.
The other thing is that it looks a bit rich, but I don't want to go down on the PE equivalence ratio, because I'm running that Sunoco 104 (GT260 Plus) that has 14% ethanol, and I'm thinking it needs a richer eq ratio with that fuel. FYI: The original tune (which I think was done for Joe by 21CMC) had a PE eq ratio of 1.345 across the rpm range. He ran a 9.98 @ 140 with that tune on Sunoco 104, so it must've been working.