Tegger's 'Teg needs a cat...

....because the original has a rust hole in it, which has rendered it noisy.


New Honda OEM cats are $1,100, and are discontinued for my car, to boot. I
am therefore reduced to trolling the aftermarket, for which I have a
healthy distrust.

Enquiries at local garages turn up several brands. Good prices all, but no
brands which inspire confidence. Being a twenty first-century kinda guy, I
start looking online. Only to discover those very same sorry brands and not
much else.

However, I do discover a listing that, at least visually, looks
suspiciously like my own OEM cat, here:
<http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/search/?Ntt=hon1623&N=0&uts=true>
Check it out. It's a dead-ringer for the OEM cat and lower heat shield.

I had a nice online chat with an sales rep from Auto Parts Warehouse, the
seller of that cat.
A transcript is linked below. It's interesting reading.
<http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/misc/apw-hon1623-chat-transcript.txt>
"John" is me. "Mari" is the APW rep.

The upshot is that their photo is /highly/ misleading. Deliberately? You
decide.

 

check out summitracing.com

I've gotten converters there for a fraction of the price charged by the
auto parts stores and have had no problem with them running or quality.

-SP

 

Looks like you're in for some custom work regardless...

JT

(Who scoffs at CCs)

 

=====================

I found Summitracing's eBay ads to be somewhat deceptive / misleading
regarding how much they were going to charge for shipping and HANDLING,
and they were useless (when I phoned for clarification (regarding
shipping to Canada).

'Curly'

 

Sounds like the rep was saying it was just as likely the
second photo she provided you was not quite reflecting what
they sold.

Considered a junkyard cat converter? I don't see them listed
at one of the national U-Pull-It sites. Yet I often see
intact muffler systems on junkyard Hondas.

 

IIRC it is illegal for junkyards to sell used Catalytic Converters.
At least it is in Canada.

Damned emissions legislation.

I just straight piped my 90 lumina, but that is an entirely different
animal than the teg. Thank god I don't have that car anymore.

t

 

@newsfe10.phx:

Yeah, I did. What scares me is that most people don't take care of their
cars, and poor maintenance does drastic and horrible damage to cats. I'd
hate to buy a used cat off a car whose owner ran the same plug wires for
ten years, or ran out of gas a few times.

I've got lots of time on this. I've got a meeting next week with an exhaust
specialist who comes to me highly recommended. Should that come to nothing,
I'm going to start looking at used cats.

 

It's perfectly legal in Ontario. Don't know about Manitoba.

Used cats are about $100 here, but you're on your own as far as quality
goes; there is no certification.

Ontario's DriveClean program does not care if your cat is new or used, or
if it's stuffed with old diapers. All they care about is if the car passes
smog when tested.

Yep. Our premier, Dalton McSneaky, recently took away the 19-year exemption
from smog for cars 1988 and newer. I'm now stuck with smog checks in
perpetuity. I never voted for that Communist anyway.

 

was talking to someone today, he said never throw out your old
catalytic converter. Take it to a metal salvage place where they can
recover the titanium and rhodium in it. You can get up to $100-200
for it...

Maybe thats just some cars... worth looking into though I guess...

 

Platinum, palladium and rhodium, actually.

Platinum and palladium are used for the HC/CO side, rhodium for the NO
side.

Garages get about $50-100 for them from the places that salvage them.

Cat thefts are increasing for this reason. The crooks are stealing them off
cars on new-car lots, using cordless Sawzalls. They target truck-based
vehicles because there's more ground clearance.

 

Ok, I'll bite. Why shouldn't I be running ten-year-old plug wires?

(full disclosure: they may have been replaced at some point. I would need
to check the maintenance records to find out.)

Mark in Seattle
1991 Accord

 

Because the insulation breaks down and leaks HT current, leading to weak
spark.

Weak spark causes excess HCs to reach the cat, overheating it to the point
of "sintering". Sintering is where the cotton candy-like surface of the
cat's element begins melting and blobbing, greatly reducing its effective
surface area, capacity and life.

 

Here is just why Teger's 'Teg needs a new cat.

I finally got around to getting under the car (oil change), removing the
heat shields and seeing for myself what exactly was wrong.

Well, the dealership lied to me. There was not "a" hole in the catalytic
converter, there were SIX of them. Once I removed (what remained of) the
heat shields, I was able to see them all.

Click here to see those holes:
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/misc/catrust/cat-rust-1.jpg
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/misc/catrust/cat-rust-2.jpg
The holes are indicated by red arrows.

If you look closely, you can see the stainless steel wire mesh Honda's
supplier used to cushion the ceramic element inside the cat's body.

Looks like this cat rotted from the inside out, and the outside in. But
mostly the former. Remember this cat is 17 years old and has seen over
300,000 miles.

Interestingly, the front of the cat (reduction side) was quite solid and
had no holes at all. Even when vigorously tapped with a ratchet handle the
front end of the cat body rang true and solid.

The REAR end, of course, is the oxidation side. This side is concerned with
making water and carbon dioxide out of the combustion gases. It seems some
of that water always stays inside the cat, eventually rotting the oxidation
side from the inside out. And that's exactly what happened to mine.

I'm going to a muffler shop this morning to see if it's possible to weld up
the holes so I can get a few more months out of the cat.

 

Great photos. Whoa, re those holes. I will check my 91
Civic's catalytic converter (204k miles; about half its life
driven in northern U.S.) soon.

And during this time, are you going to keep shopping around
for something more permanent?

 

1. You're lucky you didn't burnd down the whole damned town.

2. Them's not holes, tha's cratering!

3. Looks like you will have to find a suitable substitute. Save the
front 'n rear sections as some welding/brazing might be necessary to
make a generic unit work.

But most of all... Howdidya evah pass emmissions?

JT

 

I just notified the "authorities" regarding his outlaw practices. They
should be rounding him up soon...

<G>

JT

 

Update: Can't be welded. The metal's so thin the muffler shop says they'd
just blow holes in it if they tried.

The holes are actually fairly small, about 1/8" - 3/16" in diameter. The
noise is mostly coming from the slits at the rear, which are about the same
overall size.

I will be replacing the cat (and front pipe, whose flange is rotted to
paper-thinness) next month or so. What's going on is a Walker or other
shitty aftermarket. It looks like there's just barely enough room for the
fatter aftermarket unit to fit.

Until then, I'm wondering if some JB Weld and aluminum tape might not quiet
things down until I get around to doing the work. Ordinarily I'd just go
ahead and do it, but things have been busy around here so I haven't had a
chance.

 

It's better than the pics make it look. The noise is a lot less than what
your average fart pipe makes, but is loud enough to be annoying to somebody
no longer 18 years-old.

Everything's rotted; can't save any of it. Front pipe ("A" pipe) has to be
replaced as well, as the flange is very thin after 17 years of rusting.

Guess last spring the holes were small enough not to be noticeably loud.
Besides, the heat shield would have covered them.

 

Assuming that it is function a little still, both the aluminum tape and
JB weld would be very short lived. The JB stuff might even catch on fire.

There are exhaust patch products out there designed to with reasonalbe heat.

Why not just wrap a few beer cans around it?

JT

 

Theres a big Walker 'W' on my OEM muffler for my 98 civic.....