tomasp

Hello all,
I have taken my catalytic converter off today and this is how it looks inside. I kind of hoped it will be plugged, however it looks OK to me. Can anyone confirm that because this is the first one I see with my eyes.
I had a faulty O2 sensor and exhaust stunk with rotten egg smell. When I replaced the sensor the smell is gone however I was wondering has the rich condition damaged cat converter so I took it off.
Also the tube that can be seen on the outward end of the catalyst is something I haven't read about - it goes into some sort of sensor with 2 wires (black and white) - however I don't believe this is a second O2 sensor....my truck is 1992...

Anyway, the question. Whenever I reach 3K RPM the engine sounds like it is broken - by that I mean a new vibrating through the body noise appears and I can not say that there is a good amount of torque there neither. Idles very nice and up to 3,000 works no problem. It tends to ping though and as I said strange noise above 3K and very little torque.
The only thing not replaced/adjusted is stock sparkplug wires. Could that cause the symptoms I am having (slight pinging under load and "rumbling" over 3K + no power there)?
Much appreciated in advance!

tomasp

bump

anyone?

Elton

sounds like you got more than one problem i would say get a new cat but im not sure if the some of the exhaust companys would ship it to you

ovrrdrive

That cat looks fine but there's no guarantee that it is ok inside. I have no idea how to know if it is ok or not, but I've heard they lose their effectiveness after about 8 years anyway.

Any chance you can temporarily rig up a piece of straight pipe to put in its place for testing?

If the problem goes away order a new cat if not put it back in. Pipe and flanges should be under $10 and then you just need a friend with a welder...

tomasp

Where should I look for flanges? Exhaust places or just auto shop?

rentedmule

If you go to an exhaust shop you can just ask them to put a "test pipe" on. basically just what ovrrdrive said, a straight pipe with a few flanges. if some of the cat material is broken inside the converter than it can make some pretty awful noises. I high-centered and broke the guts of the cat on my jeep YJ and it sounded (even more) horrible during low RPM acceleration. I doubt that it's behind your loss of torque problem but if there is something wrong inside your cat it could screw up exhaust flow? I'm probably reaching on that one though! Good luck with it!