What happens if catalytic converter is removed?

[mustang67408]

NO HARM NO FOUL

[imjin]

Originally Posted by Larry Lawton

Thank you all for still replying, even when I question your advice. Believe me, no offense was intended!

...I am intrigued by the idea that race car engines use lead as octane boosters, but that's hardly convincing either, for a couple of reasons. First, I doubt they expect the race engine to last a couple of hundred thousand miles. Second, racing power plants frequently have but a nodding acquaintance with production engines.

Larry/WyomingCowboyInSanFrancisco

Larry Larry Larry... I encourage you to re-read my statement again. What I said was some racing gas contains lead. Leaded may or may not off offer an octane boost, dependent on the additional alcohol and aromatic additives, but it does burn slower than unleaded, thereby giving greater control over detonation, thus their desirability in such applications. A great many versions of racing gas contains Tetra Ethyl Lead, as does varying grades of aviation fuel. I said nothing about racing motors.

[DevinSixtySeven]

yo larry...have him check this out--pinzgauers run on LEADED gas, in order to run them here in the USA they require an additive for unleaded. i can tell ya first hand how capable a pinzgauer is, and while they are not the lap of luxury they will certainly fare better in africa than a honda. i suspect parts may actually be easier to find for the pinz...

http://www.coldwarremarketing.com/

they start around 10K for a pinz. a buddy of mine here at work likes them so much he bought two, and runs them as daily drivers...leaded gasoline, manual transmission, 18mpg, 4cyl, hydraulic lockers and tcase, portal axles, two ton capacity.

might have to get one of those "yes this is my truck, no i wont help you move" stickers tho . they already come with a metal decal on the back that sez "dont follow this vehicle, you wont make it" and (upside down) "if you can read this roll me over".

theyre a lot of fun, and also they come with all the tools to completely repair anything on the vehicle, and the part of the world he's bound for is more likely to have spare parts for a pinz.

-sean

*edit* i just poked through a few of those links and some more info on ghana. it actually looks worse than cincinnati ...we can all say whatever we want, but in the end it's his life, his family, his choice to put them in potential harm's way, and his decisions will keep them safe or not, not ours. all i can say is best of luck, and here's to hoping we dont read about him and his family in the news. oh, and from the sounds of things, a pinz wouldnt be legal over there as it's a military vehicle, so it sounds like he'd be better off buying a 4x4 over there...maybe land rover or something .

[Larry Lawton]

OK, gang, here's an update on my son, who will depart in six weeks or so for Ghana. He's taking his wife, his two children, and his spankin' new '04 Honda CR-V.

We logged on here 'cause I'm a Toyota kinda guy, wonderin' what would happen when he pulled off the catalytic converter, 'cause there ain't no unleaded gas, nowhere, nohow in Ghana.

Now, his employer runs a LOT of vehicles in the third world, and sends employees and their families overseas with a LOT of vehicles, too. They've got this down to a science, or so they say.....

Step-by-step, here's what happens:

1. Employer obtains a waiver letter from EPA.

2. Employee takes letter and Honda to the dealer.

3. Dealer removes the catalytic converter.

4. Employee keeps converter until he brings the vehicle back stateside, if ever.

5. Catalytic converter is installed when vehicle re-enters the US.

This is all very new to me. Of course, it'll be a couple of months before the slow boat gets the Honda to Ghana, but I'll try to update this thread after my son has had some experience driving in the third world.

Larry/Red Access Cab Limited Off-Road Tundra

[mustang67408]

1 thing good about all this.
He's ruining an HONDA not TOYOTA!

[sequoiasoon]

I would love to see oil analysis comparing the unleaded to leaded on the same vehicle, oil brand/type, and change interval.

[v8Toilet]

Originally Posted by mustang67408

Check engine light
poor performance
poor fuel mileage
poor engine torque
O2 sensor damage
Just for starters.
anyone else care to elaborate more.

What Mustang said and after prolonged running the engine will suffer cylinder wash and oil dilution because the computer will no longer be able to monitor the air fuel ratio when the O2 sensors fail. When they fail the engine runs rich all the time.

[Larry Lawton]

Well, just as my son was about to have the dealer remove the catalytic converter, word came from his sponsor in Accra. Ghana has put unleaded gas on the market. So, his UNMODIFIED Honda CR-V has now been loaded on the ship, and his family is over the atlantic as I type this message.

That's good news, because he DIDN'T have to modify the vehicle so it will work in Ghana. On the other hand, we won't have first-hand knowledge about how a modern vehicle performs in a third-world environment where unleaded fuel is unavailable. It'll be a couple of months before the slow boat gets the Honda to Africa. In the meantime, he'll be riding with co-workers. Some of them probably have been modified to operate on leaded gas before unleaded became available there. If he gets the time to answer my questions about that, I'll post those results here.

This is an interesting discussion. Let's see what happens next.

Larry/WyomingCowboyInSanFrancisco

[TIE-YOTA]

I removed my cat. on my Tacoma after 40,000 miles. I went to 172,000 miles before I sold it. Here is the mind bottling part, once a month I put edmissions cleaner through the truck and when inspection time rolled around it passed with flying colors. I wouldn't say it doesn't give you more HP. I ditched the cat., welded up a Flowmaster, and cut a hole in the air box, boxed in a K&N flow filter. I went straight to the Dyno-Machine and increased from 190 HP stock to 218 HP. My theory with Yota engines DOHC has always been the faster air gets in, the faster it needs to get out. That Cat. is a blocker in air flow. I noticed a significant difference. The truck was alot more responsive.