Shadow

Has anyone had their Catalytic Converter go out as a result of adding a greddy turbo?

I have a 1990 Miata with 44,000 miles on it. The base greddy kit has been on my car for about 4000 miles and all of a sudden it seems the Catalytic converter is bad (when you shake the converter it sounds like sand, when I rev the engine it rattles) I thought it was a heat shield on the exhaust at first but it appears to be the converter.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

too rich.....

Ben

iTrader: (33)

Your car is almost 20 years old dude. Stuff breaks.
You didn't want a cat on there anyway, did you?

BenR

iTrader: (2)

Exactly they do seem to wear out over time. If it really gets bad it will sound like a vtec crossover at around 4k and bark backfire out of the intake.

Either replace it or break all the honeycomb out with a pickaxe or awl. Wear a respirator mask when you do because there are some nasty metals in a cat.

Shadow

I am not complaining, I just wanted to know if the converter going bad was related to the turbo? The car is in otherwise like new condition.

rmcelwee

iTrader: (1)

Overly rich condition + more flow could = bad cat

Harv

iTrader: (4)

Pretty much what the others said. Get an air fuel meter and see if you are running rich or alternatively take it to a shop with a dyno and get a reading off their wideband. Running rich for a while could cause the cat to go bad.

I'm at 192k on my 90 on the stock cat non boosted (haven't hooked up the kit yet). Just passed emissions a few days ago.

Slidin'Miata916

iTrader: (-1)

Does the car feel sluggish or anything? you might want to get that looked at/changed/or hollowed.

cjernigan

iTrader: (13)

Or cut it off and bolt up a replacement from ebay for less than $50 including clamps. Phillip did that for a big truck, i'm sure you could get away with a cheap solution like that for awhile.

Ben

iTrader: (33)

BEGi had a small score of $50 high flow cats on their website earlier this week.

StankCheeze

iTrader: (1)

Don't even bother with it if your area doesn't have emissions.

Besides the obvious, another plus to getting rid of it is the pop-pop-pop sound on deceleration like rally cars make

magnamx-5

iTrader: (7)

gotta love that fuel brunign in the exhaust, +1 it will make flame throwers easier

Racer46

Had to replace my cat a couple of weeks ago. I was going to hollow it out but it had already been replaced once and was welded from the down pipe to the tip. I don't know how long the turbo has been on, I bought the car with it already installed.

Shadow

Thanks for the info

Harv

iTrader: (4)

Are you talking to me? My car runs fine. Where did I indicate otherwise?

Slidin'Miata916

iTrader: (-1)

Would be a symptom of a bad cat?

Harv

iTrader: (4)

What? Are you asking a question? What are you talking about?

Slidin'Miata916

iTrader: (-1)

lol
making a statement.

BenR

iTrader: (2)

Racer46

Sluggish, won't rev above 4000, if turbo installed no boost.