What's it mean when this comes out your exhaust?

It's only a functional problem for the exhaust system if the bits form a blockage somewhere between where they should be and the tailpipe. A side concern might be what caused it to break up -- although cats generally eventually self-destruct on their own , you might have a cat overheating situation caused by an overrich running condition.

 

This looks like a piece of the innards of a catalytic converter. I had this happen on a car once (I ran it so darn hard part of the innards of the CC melted).

In my experience, what will happen is those pieces will begin to break, then airflow will not pass through the small parts of it that have broken material blocking, it will start to melt, then most of the innards will deteriorate quickly. This all resulted in a bunch of rock-like pieces rattling around inside the CC housing. That sounded awful, especially when turning the car on or off & they rattled. I simply took off the CC, dumped out the rocks, then used a long screwdriver to knock out any remaining innards stuck to the edges. Then replaced the empty CC on the car. Sounded a bit louder & tougher. I'm guessing that eliminated some small amount of back pressure, but the car ran fine while I had it. It probably woudn't pass an emissions check though.

 

Looks like your Ferrari shouldnt had all that mexican food for dinner.

 

Since you just bought your car, I hope you've been through your emissions testing already. If so, just keep driving!! You'll have a year of cooler temps, better sound, and less government regulation.

If on the other hand you're still due for an inspection...um, how to put this gently... find an inspection station with a "working" knowledge of these cars.

-Daniel

 

ROFL! Thats is alomst EXACTLY what i was thining

lauighing too hard...
starting to cry

must not look anymore


Enjoy the Drive,

Steven "ROFLMAO" Rochlin

 

not to break the mood but i am ( almost) positive the stuff in a cat that comes out solid IS VERY VERY TOXIC!!! if i am wrong goody goody, just dont want anyone getting sick playing with "THE POO!"
edit .... stop laughing now...... A CONVERTER...... NOT A "FELINE"..... no " mr hanky/ South Park jokes either.... ( LOL)

 

Yes, that's cat guts. Recommend you replace the catalysts now. If not, as stated, material will lodge in the cat and muffler, possibly causing a restriction. Best case is failing emission test and louder exhaust tone. Worst case is exhaust system restrictions, negating the Tubi sound of power and/or catalyst overheat, certainly possible.

I recommend retaining emissions system functionality. Do both at the same time.

Unfortunate symptom of age for this car. As new materials became available, Ferrari changed the catalyst matrix to a much more robust material that cannot easily be broken down. The change occurred around 1996.


Best regards,

Rob Schermerhorn

 

A) yes its the guts from one Cat
B) its not all that toxic, but its not that good for you either. The ceramic matrix is inert, the rhodium metals are like lead in toxicity, the platinum is inert.
C) the Cat could have been shaken to the point (engine vibrations) that the outer material colapsed, then started to rattle around until it became small enough to pass through the exhaust pipes.

 

Ken -- Once you get a piece missing out of the cat matrix it's basically like having no cat at all since most of the exhaust gas will pass thru the breach (rather than being forced thru the very small openings of the remaining cat matrix, if any) so even a well-running engine with the cat(s) in this condition might smell a little rich. (Changing to the Tubi silencer isn't a factor IMO.)

If the car is running well, it's more likely along the lines of what Rob and Mitch said -- it's just vibrated/baked itself to death from normal use .

If you can measure the voltage on the output wire from the O2 sensor in the cat/bank with the problem when idling warm, it might give you a first clue -- it should be banging around from 0 to 1 volt if it really thinks it's running closed-loop. If it's pegged at 1 volt or above, then I'd dig deeper.

 

That is indeed part of your honeycomb from the cat. Get it replaced immediately. A borken up/melted honeycomb ends up block the exhaust escape and creates serious backpressure.

 

Take out the cats and replace them with test pipes. Better sound, less back pressure. Emission testing may be a problem though...

 

melt it down to a platnium ring