Bill Ball

Last year I failed smog despite having the car in a fairly good state of tune with the worst offender being high NO (nitrous oxide). HC (hydrocarbon) was borderline high. After making sure everything else was OK (plugs, cap, rotor, wires, fuel injectors, no air leaks, etc.), I came down to suspecting the cats were failing after 250K miles. As a test and short term solution I borrowed a set of fairly low mile stock cats from Paul Carver and passed smog with flying colors with NO dropping from 1100 PPM down to 200 PPM.

After that I tried to buy some CARB (California Air Resources Board) approved universal cats and have them welded in. Last year when I started the process, Magnaflow was the only vendor I could find providing CARB-approved cats for the Porsche 928. However, due to an uncorrectable error in their cat database, the universal cat that they listed could not be legally welded into my exhaust by my muffler shop as the database called for a single cat with a single inlet and a single outlet from 85-89, then correctly called for dual cats thereafter. So, for 84 and earlier or 90 and later, there were and are correct CARB-approved cats, but for 85-89 the error is still in the database. No one I contacted could correct it and I found no other approved aftermarket options. I gave up. Note that there are a load of 49-state cats in the correct configuration.

Recently I was surprised to discover a CARB-approved direct fit cat setup for 85-95 that bolts right up to the manifolds.

For $350 shipped I ended up with a "suitable" CARB-approved bolt-in unit. It isn't perfect, but it was for me the easiest workable solution. So, I'll show that below and cover other options.

Manufacturer: Benchmark (I cannot find any website or other information about Benchmark) UPDATE - DEC appears to be the actual manufacturer: http://www.deccats.com/
Manufacturer Part Number: 82608, commonly seen as BEN82608. UPDATE: DEC's part number is PO82608
CARB executive order: D-193-86 UPDATE: This is an error in the vendor's (Autoparts Warehouse) online ad. It should be D-193-109.
Vendor: Autoparts Warehouse: http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sk...%26+Drivetrain
Price: Advertised $387. Final $350. Free shipping. There was a minor mix-up in my order and the sales rep offered me the lower price unsolicited.

The Benchmark 82608 can be found for sale at a number of online vendors. Since places like Amazon, Sears, and JC Whitney are now front-ends for vast numbers of other vendors, you will find it there and in an array of aftermarket auto parts vendors at all kinds of prices.

"Benchmark", whoever they are [UPDATE: a private label manufactured by DEC], apparently welds these together in small batches with a decent jig. It took 10 days to receive it after ordering it from Autoparts Warehouse. It was shipped UPS, wrapped as shown here. I neglected to record the mailing source address. Darn!


Unwrapped (sorry bad focus)




You can see the air tube is kinda mooched and welded at an odd angle. At least it has the correct threaded end. I cut it off and temporarily reoriented it with a rubber hose when we installed it, as you will see.

The downpipe tubing and cat outlet is 2" plain steel and is not mandrell bent. So, it's somewhat restrictive in that regard.


Interestingly, the converter itself is a Magnaflow 336008, stainless steel, ceramic core, aluminized heatshield. Magnaflow 336008 is not CARB-approved for the 928. ???


A CARB database of approved cats does not include this cat.
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/aftermk...atpreobdii.pdf

A CARB executive order D-193-86 is cited as indicating the Benchmark 82608 is approved for my car, but that order does not appear to be relevant. http://arb.ca.gov/msprog/aftermkt/de...o/D-193-86.pdf
UPDATE: EO D-193-09 is for Magnaflow 336000 series cats for pre-OBD II cars. See this: http://arb.ca.gov/msprog/aftermkt/de.../D-193-109.pdf

So, I cannot find verification and the confusion continues. [UPDATE 12/08/2013: Almost have it nailed down.]

BUT, I have a set of cats that fit well enough with no cutting and welding needed. I've never had anyone specifically try to verify cats on my car.




The flanges mated with a minimal amount of prybar coaxing, less than an earlier X-pipe required.


The O2 sensor angle is more upright than stock and is very close but not touching the heatshield.


Here's the air injection tube temporarily "reoriented". A different joining hose is needed.


As far as I can determine this is the only aftermarket cat configuration made that is direct fit that indicates CARB approval. Benchmark also makes a 49-state direct fit setup, as well, part 2608, for those outside of CA who would like a bolt-on solution. http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sk...L/BEN2608.html
Ironically, it is more expensive and since CARB-approved cats are 50-state, you non-Californians could use whichever is cheaper.

There is a CATCO 49-state direct fit as well. http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sk...r/CAT9411.html

I may have lost some power with the smaller pipe diameter and the pipe bends. The exhaust note is louder and there is a modest drone in the cabin at 2400-2600 RPM (65-70 MPH), and my seat of the pants feeling is the power is the same.

There are now some universal (cutting and welding required) fit CARB-approved cats available.

Walker 80830 appears similar to the Magnaflow. Walker shows this as CARB-approved for my car and I can see the EO number of D-182-54 on pictures of the cat.
http://catalog.walkerexhaust.com/cat...dStatus=ACTIVE
It's available on Amazon for $137 [Note: prices fluctuate].

But, to show how screwed up things are, here's another universal converter, a CATCO 65015, that this vendor says is approved for 86-89 Porsche 928.
https://www.catalyticconvertersonlin...alifornia=True
But based on photos elsewhere, this is a single inlet/outlet converter. Have fun trying to have that installed.

Anyway, I'm going to see how well the Benchmark cats hold up. They have a 5 year/50K mile warranty as required by CARB, but you can imagine how easy that would be to enforce.

dr bob

Great info Bill!

Rob Edwards

Here's the list of CARB-approved Magnaflows in tabular form, showing the screwup for 85-89. Thanks CARB!

Bill Ball

Magnaflow 36014

Yep, you can see in Rob's table that the database calls for a single 36014 for 85-89. Not understanding the single designation last year, I bought two of these figuring that's what was needed. The muffler shop said no go. They called Magnaflow tech support and got no help. I called them again and tried to contact CARB. CARB's phone rang and rang - no answer and no voicemail.

Anybody want one or two new-in-the-box Magnaflow 36014? $300 for the pair shipped or $150 each. Next stop - eBay.

17prospective buyer

So glad I don't need to deal with that bull****!

Bill Ball

Yep, one of the hassles of living in paradise. At least it was paradise when I was a kid. Now it's just home.

Speedtoys

Don't count your chickens..you never know what tomorrow will throw at ya.

danglerb

Bill has this direct replacement made it through a smog inspection that included checking the numbers on the cats?

17prospective buyer

Meh, it's double for me. 15 year and older exemption, AND rural exemption, rural exemption ain't going away any time soon.

69gaugeman

Well you are not quite correct on the 15 year old thing. 89 and older do not require the test ever. 90 and newer will require the test as long as they still have testing.

Damn you rural guys lol

dr bob

I've never had the smog guys do more than ask if the cats are in place. They could peek onder there and see the tail ends sticking out above the back of the rear tray I guess, but short of raising the car and pulling the rear tray off, there's no way to verify numbers on them. A brand new set fitted into pipes that have that certain patina that comes with age and use, well that might cause a second look. Maybe if the car has failed a few times and suddenly shows almost no emissions, that would warrant a real look.

---

I get questioned about several things on the car, where inspection is a lot more work than the test guy feels is really needed:

-- Air pump there? I point to it.
-- Air pump working? Yep.
-- Carbon cannister? Yep, inside the fender liner. There's the valve on the cam cover. OK...
-- Cats installed? Yep.
-- There's no check engine light, in spite of what their book says.
-- Inspector scratches his head while looking at the vacuum diagram on the hood. I remind him that the diagram is upside-down relative to the car, see where those little bumps are? Those are the headlights. So what you see here on the left of the diagram is on the right side of the car.

-- Nothing has been done since to it since we last saw it? Just normal maintenance.


It -really- helps if eveything looks like it was installed at the factory. Extra plumbing held on with wire ties, pieces of copper tubing that aren't painted satin black or silver to match the rest of the engine bay, oil slicks and crud puddles, wire connectors and hoses fractured or going to nothing, polished billet brackets holding accessory drive bits, loud exhausts, etc. All are big red flags that force a closer inspection.

17prospective buyer

I just realized that some time after posting. I remembered it being 15 or older, I do remember they changed all the rules when the new 2013 testing protocol came along. The rural thing is pretty broad actually, it goes pretty far down. In fact when I was living at home (I was in Grade 11 when I bought my 87) that location that I registered it with is literally JUST on the border between Simcoe and Grey county, Drive Clean only extends up to Simcoe. I was lucky as far as that goes. But it's awesome, we haven't had to get E-tests for, well ever I guess since they've always lived in the country.

It's one of those things where it's been going on so long that to implement it in the farming areas would be pointless. But they'd have a field day telling all the farmers to put the EGR back on their diesels! I think that's the first thing everybody does with a new diesel work truck around here!

danglerb

Star can be a lot more nosy.

My bad luck two years ago with my Mustang, pulled into a 3 lane high volume test only place at the same time a tech showed up to do some work on one of the systems, so it and lane next to it were shut down. This left the boss and three techs with nothing to do but look over my car. They failed it when they could not read the number on the bottom of the cats.

I've got two smog checks planned for Friday, but no issues expected much, I hope.

Imo000

You are wrong too. 87 and older are exempt, all others, 88-up need, emission test in parts of Ontario that has the program.

Bill Ball

Uh, well, the number on the actual Magnaflow cat used is not CARB approved for our cars. The CARB database is FUBAR'd for 85-89 928s. I've never had anyone try to look at the cats in 14 years of smog testing. I've only had one place interrogate me about any of the smog parts, and I stopped going there. If you put your rear bellypan on, the cats are not accessible anyway. I'm not expecting any problem. It's too bad about the CARB database, but after I failed miserably in my attempt to correct that, my goal became simply to get working cats to pass the sniff test. I couldn't do that with universal cats due to the database error, but this direct-fit unit solved that for me. I would like to try to understand the CARB approval situation, but so far it has eluded my investigative skills. I thought about questioning the vendor to get an explanation of the CARB status from the manufacturer, but I worried that might scare the manufacturer into stopping production.