(Poll) Have any of you replaced your catalytic converter?

[Xist]

I spent all day trying to take care of my cat. I bought jigsaw blades, the acid powders, distilled water, gasket material, and batteries for my laser thermometer. I got everything else ready and then removed my cat tonight.
It took hours! I really don't want to do this every 5,000 miles!

The oxygen sensor is black and I think the cat is clogged with carbon. I rinsed it out a bit, but I want to soak it with hot soapy water.

I should do that in the garage. I don't want it freezing outside!

[Xist]

When my CEL came back after acid-washing my cat the outside was so rusted I didn't want to try again, so I replaced it.

The new one is rusted, too!

I don't know where to find a pot tall which for my cat. I think a turkey fryer would be tall enough, but $50 for a pot that I will use to boil acid sounds excessive.

Today I thought about a 5-gallon metal paint bucket, but supposedly there are zero in-town.

I ordered an aluminum plate for $20, bought gasket material for $10, and spent $8 on M18x1.5 bolts to plug the oxygen sensor holes.

I feel like I could have found a better price, I didn't need ones 30mm long, but that was the best that I could find!

Apparently some drain plugs are that size, but it didn't seem worthwhile going to at least one more store.

So, I used a mending plate as a compass, bought new blades for Dad's old jigsaw, realized that when the blade popped out of Dad's old jigsaw some random piece of metal ran for freedom, and it was now unusable.

Ace now closes at six and they had the same jigsaw that Home Depot sells for $38 for $25--on top of the $5 I already spent on blades.

I clamped the aluminum to the memorial bench I built for the tomato plants Mom murdered, cut something that would fit in the pot, drilled pilot holes, and then used my auger bit, cut one big gasket, drilled pilot holes, and then used the auger, but it broke!

It broke making a gasket!

I needed to use cutting oil to make a gasket?

Huh. Two gaskets would have cost about as much, no assembly required!

I sanded down the edges and deburred the holes. I wasn't sure it made a difference, but it felt right, and all that matters are feelings!

Just not mine.

A quarter-pound of fasteners from CAL Ranch attached the cats to the plate.

What is the torque spec of... whatever this is?

The fasteners are steel, so I think that I could have cranked it down. I tightened until it felt right, but the gasket seemed to leak, so obviously it wasn't tight enough.

Maybe real gaskets would have sealed better. This was metallic on one side, but the back looks like a tiny layer of cork.

I don't know how much of a difference it matters that it leaks a little, once I filled the pot there wasn't much of a pressure differential.

So, then I spent forever looking for Mom's hot plate. I asked where it was and she just started yelling at me. I finally remembered where it was after what seemed like forever--and after finding some of the materials for this project in the garage.

See, Mom is a pack rat. She came home from vacation to a clean and straight house and she immediately put so much junk on the foot rests that you cannot rest your feet on them and so much junk on the couch and loveseat that you need to clear a spot, but when I am trying to fix something for her or one of my cars, which is allegedly important to her, she likes to have my brother put spread it out in different places in different rooms.

Then she says "I didn't move it!"

So, I finally found the hot plate, and all of the stuff that Mom had my brother hide. I cleaned out a small bucket and a funnel, mixed up one gallon of solution, and it filled both cats to the neck--you know, before it slowly leaked out, but I filled up the pot as fast as I could.

The hot plate keeps turning off.

I told Mom that her barbecue is Plan B, so when I grabbed my steel pot with four gallons of water, two catalytic converters, an aluminum plate, and random steel fasteners, she had my brother close the door in my face.

So, here I sit, trying to heat up my catalytic converters like some kind of caveman, dreading removing the grate in order to add wood every hour or so, and then it seemed to die out.

With fire almost as high as the top of the pot, the top of one cat feels slightly warm.

My laser thermometer shows 81° on the neck and it is already 1910, so this may be doomed, too.

How much have I spent trying to extend the life of my C.C?

[Xist]

After spending all day hitting an SUV with my Camry, dealing with the police, slowly driving my Toyota home, filing a claim, and pricing parts, I finally unpacked the hot plate that cost me my Camry!



I kind of wanted to get rid of the old solution and make a new batch, but hopefully the hot solution will get far dirtier.

Except I lost some of it. How deep was it?


I decided to make some more to top off the neck.

My brother went through a phase where he bought every Anchor and Pyrex measuring cup. A 4.5-ounce one worked pretty well for making a gallon of solution, but its lowest marking is 15 ml.

Then I just need 22.5 ml of the other and 38.4 ounces of water?

I made a half-gallon of solution and have a little more than enough citric acid for one more gallon, but tons of the Oaxacan acid left.

So, I heat it for 6 hours after it reaches 160°?

How was it still colder than the ambient temperature 20 minutes after sitting on the hot plate?!

[Xist]

Twenty days after cleaning my cat I finally reinstalled it and took it for a test drive. I had 222,652 miles and drove another 37. Everything seemed great!

[Xist]

I don't think my car killed this one, not in less than 80 miles.

I am going to buy some longer bolts and swap in the rusty cat.

My client's grandmother said that I am going to need a better car if I am going to start driving an hour each way to see clients with a second agency.

I probably have a nicer-than-average car compared to that town and I am pretty sure she judged my car my the bad paint job the guy who painted bumpers for a living gave my back bumper.

Unfortunately, my transmission seems to be leaking fluid.

[freebeard]

Suspect sensor failure.

I found out that my Metro continuously throws a 12 [no fault] because there is a diagnostic fuse in place. I could find and remove it, but the 'heatbeat' is kind of reassuring.

[Xist]

I cleaned the oxygen sensors and bought electrical parts cleaner to clean my MAP sensor, but I haven't done that yet, nor have I tested the oxygen sensors.

I looked up instructions for all of the above, which of course took a while, but I started talking to a beautiful lady on Saturday, and I didn't break away until she went to bed.

I cleared the CEL and it returned in 10-15 miles.

[Xist]

I installed yet another Fischer cat on my Accord, which may have a bad transmission, keeps killing cats, and died for a still-undetermined reason.

I don't know why the acid wash and the other treatment didn't work on the first one, but I have a theory on how the second failed, but why?!

Well, this should make the Keep Throwing Money at Your Current Cars camp happy, because that matters.

[redneck]

.

Well, this should make the Keep Throwing Money at Your Current Cars camp happy, because that matters.

Well, it does matter.

You spent - lost several days time and several hundred dollars on a car that may or may not be worth repairing.

Go back and re-read https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...tml#post661340




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[Xist]

You claimed that the feelings of one group matter.

Only the feelings of that group.

Explain how I spent several hundred dollars.