philooo

After one of my OEM Catalytic converter died, I mounted a set of high flow catalytic converter. I bought them used so I have no idea of the brand but they work great and sound awesome, only trouble is that they run hotter than the OEM.

They are NOT red hot but the metal click a lot more when the car is parked and I now hear my rear fan going on when the car is parked and they used to never turn on before.

They get warmer in street driving than high speed driving.

What do you think I can do to make them cooler :
- ceramic coating ?
- those racing wrapping that people put on header ?
- other ideas ?

logray

drive faster?

Dennis C

Ceramic coating sounds like a good idea...

Stephen Tinker

I've ceramic coated several motorcycle and car headers and mufflers with very good results.

HPC (High Performance Coatings) is, I believe, an American company which I have used here in Australia - they say that their ceramic coatings can save up to 28% of radiated heat using their systems - depending on colour - which I agree with.....

FLY996

Ceramic coating...check Jet-Hot...

Zookie

i have had mine for 4 years now (Fab Speed)... they never get Red Hot... They Dont Click... and my Fan Does not Go On (It does Work)

Did you have them Instpected before you put them on? Does your car feel Heavy? Maybe they are Bad (Fused) thats why they are getting Hot.

What Brand?

philooo

I really have no idea about the brand, it looks like they had a 'rectangular' badge on them that fell off.

What do you mean by 'Fused' ? They would not be working anymore ?

They don't make any noise like the broken OEM do, but they are old and I have used O2 sensor extender to avoid CEL light, so if they don't work, the computer will not see it.

The car feels great, runnning perfect, sounds good and all.

I would hate to pay for ceramic coating if they are dead I bought them very cheap..may be too cheap

>> HOW CAN I TELL IF THEY ARE DEAD ? << I looked into them and the 'filter' looked good.

Zookie

Fused meaning Cats inside have Melted and Fused together, reason for why they would be Glowing Red. But if you says your Performance is Great. Then they might not be "Broken". If they were say Fused the Perfomance would be Lacking becauce Exhaust Gases would not be able to Pass Freely one of the Reasons why the Pipes would Glow Red under normal Operations...

geetee

I've got 200 cells also but no glowing no metal clicking...I'm not sure what's going on with yours

philooo

I corrected my first post... because they are NOT glowing red... I had missed a word in the original post

I assume ceramic coating looks like the best solution at this time, I'll try to get some quote and see how it goes.

02TX996Cab

To find out if your cats are working, get a tailpipe emissions check performed. High CO and unburned HC are give-aways that something is wrong.

Having O2 sensor extenders in doesn't help--you're losing potentially valuable data. As annoying as they can be, CELs (with attendant codes) can help you troubleshoot problems. For example, a car running rich would result in extra unburned hydrocarbons entering the cats. This, in turn, would cause them to run much hotter. Over this this could also cause them to fuse, deactivate or otherwise "quit working".

If your cats are working properly and you simply want to reduce radiated heat, either header wrap or ceramic coating should work. Just remember that anything you do to reduce radiated heat will be acting as an insulator and will cause the catalytic elements and everything else downstream (mufflers, tailpipes) to run hotter. Caveat emptor.

philooo

Very good point on insulating the cats, I did not think that it would stress them out even more...

I'll take them out soon to check them and may be put the O2 sensor back in place

I wish I had the oem but really they just keep breaking