HELP - To install a catalyst on a 328 (Italian Spec)

I'd think you could bolt the US or other original cat parts onto your block, but it might mean a new manifold, etc. (I'd have to check the parts book to see.) But where you'd hook up the temperature probe is another issue.

Does your dash come without a "slow down" light? (My wiring diagram is US only, although the spare parts catalog is international.)

Of course, you could always ship the car to Norwoods for a turbo setup (with full EFI conversion).

 

Eugenio -- I checked the 328 SPCs because I think that TRs use the same cat and warning light ECU as US version 328 (so I might have some parts/info for you if you do pursue this work); however, IMO you shouldn't pursue this project:

1. Your standard version 328 (dual-path) exhaust layout is radically different than the US version (single-path) layout and extremely unfriendly to even somehow adding 2 smaller aftermarket cats (there's no straight run, or any distance, between the 1-4 bank header collector and the silencer inlet),

2. The thermal insulation in the rear boot area is really insufficent for the extra heat,

3. Being "without lambda", you probably have an even greater need to have a working over-temperature warning light system if you added cat(s) so that just increases the project cost/hassle.

Sorry to be so negative, but IMO you'd be better off getting a complete US or late CH version 328, or perhaps a 355 .

 

Hi Eugenio,

a very expansive solution is the lenz update:
http://www.lenz.de/
He offers 300 hp with metal cat + new motronic.

forza

cinque

 

Eugenio, surley all you need is a well placed "bustarella" for the bollino blu. The average Carabiniere/Poliziotto will look in the front for the engine ! Most people have no idea what they're looking at anyway. If you tell them it's got a cat "li dentro" and vaugely wave at the exhaust they probably won't even question it.

Another (more complicated) alternative is foreign registration. If you can get the car registered & insured in the UK you have instant autovelox immunity. This is more problematic as you need a UK address and have to go on holiday with the car to England every year to get the MOT certificate. My sister did this living in PC for several years.

 

You might want to check local groups, as there might be a simple "conversion" that meets the letter of the local laws without making much of a change to the car itself. (A kind of "smoke and mirrors" approach.)

But the emission controls on stock 328s in markets that required it back then (not just the US) were pretty much a kludge even then. To improve over stock would probably dictate going for an electronic engine management solution, either the lenz or the norwoods (http://www.norwoodperformance.com/) type of conversion, with a computerized engine management system.

On the bright side, computers are much better now than when the 328s came out, and an electronic fuel injection system can get that big Bosch barn door out of the air intake, improving throttle response.

I'm looking at doing an EFI conversion on my US spec 328, simply because the K-jet has no internal diagnostics, and after 15 years, it's pretty certain that there will be one or two parts not working ... and you can't find them without taking everything apart and checking each component one by one by one. Gah! And replacement Marelli multiplexes are getting hard to come by. (Why they stuck the manifold pressure sensor inside the computer box, I'll never understand.)

Bosch CIS - great MTBF (mean time between failure), horrible MTTR (mean time to repair).

 

The problem is that your current injection system can't handle a cat, which is why you'd need to upgrade the engine management to get a cat to work correctly.

Unless you can simply strap an inert cat to the exhaust pipe and say, "look - it has one".

 

I think you can do that. When I lived in Italy I bought a scooter which had a 2 stroke engine, carburettor and NO control system, but it did have a catalyst (the size of a tennis ball) which qualified me for a massive tax rebate on the trade-in bike I gave which had no cat.

Within 3 months the cat was drenched in 2-stroke oil but I was still allowed to ride it all-over town even on the anti-smog "no motor vehicle" days.

But that was a couple of years back, and as flyingboa says, things might have moved on.