Is it okay to drill holes in my catalytic converter?
Your “friend” is an idiot.A cat will pose no significant restriction. There is no gain in performance.If you drill holes into it you fool the oxygen sensors into thinking the mixture is lean. That will tell the ECU to command more fuel and it will skew fuel trims. You will get a “check engine light” and pay $ 80.00 in my shop just for the knowledge that you are an idiot.You will come to my shop after having been to Autozone , where they scanned your car for free and sold you an oxygen sensor you didn’t need in the first place.Why are you doing this? Why do you want your car to sound louder?Loud cars are owned by idiots.If you want to get laid then read books. Become literate . Go to the library and make eye contact with intelligent dames. Driving around in the neighborhood with a hole in the muffler ain’t gonna get you laid.
Why does my catalytic converter glow red hot??
It's NOT clogged (yet) and it's not "doing it's job." A cat normally gets very hot when in use, but NOT GLOWING hot. Something is causing raw unburned fuel to be sent down the exhaust pipe where the cat "burns" this fuel. The cat is designed to burn the tiny amount of unburned fuel that comes from a normal engine. Now, if you pour excessive hydrocarbons (fuel) in the exhaust, the cat will burn that too and since it's burning too much fuel it glows red hot. This won't last very long, this is very damaging to the cat. The catalyst can get hot enough to melt. And that won't take long! And when it melts, then you will have a blob of molten metal blocking the exhaust pipe (now it's clogged!) and the engine will stop operating. At that point, the only fix is replacement of the catalytic converter. However, if you find and fix the problem now you can avoid that expense. You have to find why raw fuel is going through the engine. The most common reason would be a bad spark plug or bad spark plug wire. If the spark doesn't work, there is no "combustion" in that cylinder and the raw unburned fuel goes out the exhaust pipe. A spark plug can be replaced for 0.97 cents, but if you wait till the cat melts, well those can cost $100's or more to replace. Other problems could be a bad carburetor mixture, bad computer causing overly rich mixture, clogged fuel injectors, even bad /burnt valves and/or rings but heck lets not think about that. But get an expert to look at it NOW and don't drive it any more till it's fixed, or that cat will melt and then you'll be in deep do do. Good luck.
If i hollow out my catalytic converters, should i still use the 02sensors, or leave them unplugged?
I did this years ago, I actually bought a cat replacement that didn't fit so instead i just poured gas into my cat and set it on fire. If you do this and let it burn for 5-10 minutes it should burn up the catalyst and the screens in the cat. Then you can poke it out with a rod of some sort to get it all clean. As for the sensors you may or may not set off your check engine light. Typically you will have at least 2 oxygen sensors in a fuel injected system. There is a o2 sensor that is before the cat (upstream) and a o2 sensor that is after the cat (downstream). The upstream sensor helps level out your fuel trims. The downstream compares the values from the upstream and compares them to make sure the catalyst is doing it's job. Some people leave the downstream o2 sensor tied up outside the car, you can either leave it in or tie it up. You can also measure the resistance of the sensor during normal operating conditions and wire a resistor in to fool the ecu into thinking the downstream o2 is within spec. If i were you i would try it with the sensor still in the cat then if it throws a code try something else. As for power you may or may not feel an increase. You have just removed a restriction in flow so your exahust might be a little louder. Your cars exhaust will also smell a little rich but in my opinion it smells better than an exhaust with a cat. I'm always around to answer questions, feel free to im me via yahoo im.
If I took off the catalytic converter, will it make my fuel get better mileage?
Don't listen to the naysayers. A engine is a pump, anything you do to increase pump efficiency, is going to increase gas mileage. A new cat will not rais fuel consumption much, But if it has over 100,000 miles on it, You will see a marked increase or “restoration” of gas milage. This is especially true of cars with a secondary air pump. They are not exactly filtering the air, before its pumped into you exhaust.This is what gets fun. If you reprogram, or modify the O2 sensors signal to bring the engine to stylometric fuel ratio or just less, you will get a 5–10% increase in gas milage. This trick really shines in stop and go traffic. If you analyse the wave form of the upstream O2 sensors, you will notice it spends a lot more time rich, than lean. You are sitting at red lights feeding that Fat Cat, so it can make more smoke.All cars are set up to fuel that catalytic convert. This keeps them hot and working. Without extra fuel pumped thru the engine, that cat has nothing to do, cools down, and slowly plugs up. To bad your cat will plug up if you lean out the engine. Hint, Hint……….
Can a clogged catalytic converter unclog itself?
Well, it can happen that they will de-clog on their own, but usually need a helping hand. If it is utterly blocked, then dismantling and manually cleaning is the only solution.If the ceramic material inside is melted, then change it.Most modern Cats are stuffed with a ceramic honeycomb structure, unlike the older ones that had complex filters with platinum wool amongst other stuff inside them.One of the reasons they get clogged is people lugging around in fifth gear making lots of soot which clogs the honeycomb.A faulty EGR valve (gas recirculation) will do the trick as well.Faulty injection, allowing to much fuel to come through the exhaust can cause the honeycomb to melt when it starts burning the fuel... (replacement)But you can clear a blocked (not 100% blocked) converter by getting it hot enough to make it finish what it is supposed to do.The garages here in France have a naughty technique, they hoist the car up on lift with the motor going flat out, and stand underneath it holding a fire extuinguisher, just in case it sets fire to the car, or any flames from the now burning soot comes blasting out of the rear.It is a dangerous technique in my opinion, and not good for the engine, but it works. I don't suppose it works everytime either.So if you have a CAT that is partially blocked because you mooch around in fifth gear or have bad driving habits, you could try driving the vehicle hard enough to heat the CAT as it should be, where usually it can clear itself.So , if it is soot build up, there is hope for you, to unclog it without taking it off the vehicle and or changing it, if it is hard blocked with mineral deposits, unlikely. If it is melted, its got to be changed.
How does the muffler delete mode affect a car's horsepower and torque?
If the car is an OLD car, one built twenty years or more ago, removing the muffler will probably result in a noticeable gain in power at high engine speeds. At lower speeds this will not have any significant effect.oThis will also result in the car failing mandatory emissions testing, meaning the registration cannot be renewed, and also likely result in being ticketed by the police for having a vehicle that makes too much noise and for driving a vehicle that has been illegally modified.On newer cars, changing things on the exhaust system is apt to result in LESS power, rather than more, unless you replace any original parts with high performance parts, properly selected and installed.Simply doing away with the muffler, or disabling the sensors that measure the temperature and composition of the exhaust will force the engine computer into “limp home” mode, which means it will produce LESS power than usual. Warning lights will light up in the instrument cluster, and the computer will set trouble codes.