Killing cats...fuel problem?

[Camarorulz]

My car has 68k on it now and I just had my cat go bad. You could not see the light of day through this thing at all, even holding it up to the sun.

Previously, I had another one go bad at around 20k miles or so.

I've only had the fuel injectors cleaned once at about 40k. Maybe dirty fuel injectors are causing my problem?

It seems kind of funny that I've ruined two stock catalytic converters now. I don't have the problem (!cat..hehe) but I'd still like to figure out what was causing them to go bad, I don't think they were just faulty.

[Camaraholic]

Re: Killing cats...fuel problem?

kill the cats perm. I get 18-22 mpg city and 25-28 hiway without cats...course I did it for louder exhaust, so yeah thats my idea

[slow6]

Re: Killing cats...fuel problem?

WOT is rich, rich kills kittys

[StevenC]

Re: Killing cats...fuel problem?

Fuel is the quickest way to killing cats. Check your A/F ratio, maybe at a smog shop or if a friend has a meter. Something as simple as a vacuum leak or bad air filter could be causing you to run rich.

DO NOT TAKE OFF YOUR CAT!!!!!! I can't stress that enough. You have an ethical responsibility when you own a car to keep it on there. This isn't 1970 where cats cost 100 horsepower. Lingenfelter says on a 300-400 hp car they cost at most 5 hp. You won't even begin to feel 5 hp, so just leave them on.

[Camarorulz]

Re: Killing cats...fuel problem?

meow...fuel killed the cats. Will look into it.

Here was my choice: $40 to get it taken off and run straight pipe or $225+ to buy a new one and have it welded on...it didn't come off for five hp, it came off to save almost $200.

I got 17.5 mpg pure city driving in the last few days, that's with an aftermarket cam. In other words, I'm pretty much getting advertised gas mileage. Talk to the people driving alone in SUVS getting 10-12 about ethical responsibility.

[StevenC]

Re: Killing cats...fuel problem?

I hear you on the SUV thing. I personally hate all the people driving them around with only 1 person in it. Pretty retarded. But what I really mean is that the cat will scrub your exhaust of the vast majority of pollutants. Without a cat, your 17.5 mpg will actually pollute more than a dozen SUV's getting 10 mpg.

Cats are expensive because of the precious metals within them and we even use the cheap cats. You're going to run into serious long term issues if you keep the motor running excessively rich. Fix that problem and find a cat from a junkyard. You'll add at least 5 mpg, fix your pump pay-out, and do what's right.