Catalytic converter question

I have heard of hollowed out catalytic converters, but is there any shop out there who can put the ‘guts’ back in them once they have been hollowed out? Some oem replacements for exotics cost more than $10,000.

 

Fabspeed is advertising for doing this with F40 Cats.
https://www.fabspeed.com/ferrari-f40-factory-oem-catalytic-converter-re-coring/

Do a research on them here at f-chat.

 

Sure....these guys do it all the time.

https://www.fabspeed.com/ferrari-f355-factory-oem-catalytic-converter-re-coring/

 

Thanks, it seemed possible, but an internet search provided no answers.

 

Depending on which car, are you stuck on staying OEM? Might be more cost effective just to go with aftermarket cats, tend to keep the heat down in the engine bay also, not to mention valuable real estate as stock Ferrari cats tend to be hot fat pigs...

 

Alas, I am not looking at fitting a Ferrari with cats, I need to fit out my 92 Diablo with two units.

 

As I always say, "when in doubt, get the die-grinder out"

Depending on how handy you are with a TIG welder, I don't think it should be all that difficult. I've knocked the cores out of several converters. It's just a big ceramic (?) block looking deal that is basically a honeycomb affair. I'd think if you needed to make one, you could cut that part out, then cut open your OEM cat, stick it in there and weld everything back up. Or search 'catalytic converter core' on Google and you should find plenty of stuff.

I had Hyperflow cats on my 360; if they are still around, perhaps they have something as well.

Ray

 

Thanks - it might come to that, but I would need to find some cores which can cope with a 5.7 V12 at 7500 rpm.

 

Is hyperflow still in business?

 

I used Fabspeed to have a set of 456 cats done on my car last summer. They offered both recoring and thier own versions. Someone had already cut out my stock ones and did a really poor job rewelding them shut, so i went with a new setup. Very happy with thier product.

Likely you would have to send yours to them either way, recore or new build

 

All I can say is, "I never met a test pipe I didn't like"

Ray

 

Alas, the car will go to Europe and be registered (hopefully) as an auto d’epoca which means it should be a good representative of its type.

I did this with my Countach and no objections were raised concerning emissions equipment, but it had all its original components (i.e. none!) The Diablo should have its original bits visible, but I have no idea whether a non-functional catalytic converter will cause an issue at the time of original registration or in subsequent years when it goes for its bi-annual ‘revisione’.

 

I believe many states, including California and EPA classify spent catalytic converters as hazard waste. So if cutting one open and knocking out the block, Don’t toss the guts in the garbage.

 

No question guts can be replaced.

 

Thanks very much Ed. And you know... the EPA is probably hiring:

https://www.epa.gov/careers/how-apply-finding-right-job

Ray

 

The Hyperflow name was purchased by Scuderia Rampante, Troy, the original owner (Atlanta), retired now, still works on them occasionally. Check with SRI. I had mine re-cored for $1200.00 a few years ago.

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I have had FabSpeed recore for me and was very happy with the results.

 

I believe Troy is the person I dealt with back in the late 90's. Great guy.

Ray

 

HJS are excellent cats. Made in Germany. Not all cat quality is equal. If you want to check on heavy metal loading, call a muffler shop to get scrap value. Some cats are worth hundred, and others are just haz waste.

BTW, I got my HJS cats from Speed Tech in NH (603.856.6618). They set up some welds for me on the HJS cat bodies which were beautiful.

 

After deleting my 456 cats, the CEL appeared. If I were to replace with FabSpeed cats, would the ECU reset and cancel the CEL or would it require a flashing?

 

You could fix with either new cats or O2 sensor anti fouler. Your CEL is probably an error like "rear O2 out of range". Worst case after you do the new cats or anti fouler, you will need to disconnect the negative battery cable for 10 minutes or use a cheapo OBDII code scanner to issue an all clear to get rid of the CEL. (ANY of them will do, it's a universal standard in this case)

 

There are some cat rebuilders out there that won’t cost you to much. I chose to fabricate with the helper of a good welder.
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Sometimes aftermarket catalysts are not as efficient as OEM and you will still get "low catalyst efficiency" codes, requiring some sort of O2 sensor extension or "anti fouler" as you call it, to eliminate the CE light. Just my experience.