Looking for broken cats (1995 - 355)

There was a set of hollowed out cats on Ebay the other day

 

What is your experiment??

 

There is a set on ebay now.

 

How will you measure the flow differences?

 

My personal experience, (and what I have seen pictured a number of times on fchat), is the cores in the oem Ansa cats come loose. Once loose, they rotate around, which slowly grinds down the core from the outside. Initially, the core will stay oriented in the correct direction, as they are longer than they are wide, but the exhaust will go around it, rather than through it (which will likely throw a "check engine" light for low cat efficiency). Since the core, as it wears down, will no longer be oriented in the correct direction, exhaust flow can become restricted as it has to go around, rather than through the core....this also lowers the cat efficiency, tripping the "Check Engine" light. As it gets worse, the cores will start to crumble and break apart (I would suspect that only happens to those that either repeatedly clear the light with a code reader without replacing the cats, or simply ignore the CE light).

The factory cats can be repaired, by having them cut open, new cores properly secured, and the housings welded back up.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ferrari-355-Catalistic-Convertors_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33629QQihZ020QQitemZ300224694062QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

 

sent you a PM

 

The only difference (so I hear) is the 5.2 had the post cat O2 sensor fitting. So you can use a 5.2 cat on a 2.7 if you put a plug (cap screw) on the second O2 bung.

 

Cores are honeycomb looking.