Wow! That cat really disintegrated. Makes me worry, that is for sure.

I went to TechnoSquare for a reflash and found I was running lean, which means I was running hot. There has been talk that the RT's tend to make the car run lean.

I am wondering if the additional heat caused by the lean condition is causing the RT's to become damaged? Just thinking out loud here.......

I hope you get compensated under warranty for the cost of the cats.........this should not have happened. RT has been making cats for a long time........the bugs should be worked out by now, but obviously, this is not the case.

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Because there is a lean condition, the EGT's would be higher, and thus the hotter temps might be too much for the cat. But then again if you are running lean you should be more worried about your pistons first. What about the Kinetix or Crawford cats? Have there been similar issues with those products? The lean condition may be just an inherent issue no matter what hi flow cat is used.

 

I'm going to contact R/T on Monday and have a nice chit chat with them on this issue.

And Tim. . . JESUS your car sounds great. I'm going to consider the Helix test pipes now because I love that tone. Hmmm. . . wonder if I should go with cams too?

 

No issues on my set up.

So far so good

 

Actually the sound did not change that much with the cams, I now have the Crawford V 5 Plenum and it really sounds mean. I do not have any new sound clips but I will try to get on soon.

The cams change the sound slightly above 3,500 rpm when they come on, other than that it sounded just as mean w/o cams.

Thanks for the compliment. I will post picture of V 5 Crawford

 

Here is picture of engine set-up

 

is that V5 CF ?

 

any symptoms to speak of from the tail pipes?

 

Nope

 

wow.... yikes.
nice job finding out what it was. thanks for sharing.

 

this is why we only sell the Ultimate Cats - they carry a 5 year warranty against exactly this sort of thing!

 

I'm guessing these were the ones I bought from you. Let me know what your gonna do. If they send you a new one I'll still take the set. This really doesn't scare me any.

 

This is NOT--I repeat NOT--an isolated incident with the RT cats.

--Steve

 

ZU L8R. . . I plan on getting you a fresh set from R/T on this situation, and having them shipped directly to the address you gave me if that's ok.

I had these taken off my car on the day I told ya that it was gunna happen, and then I about had a heart attack when I saw this. Hope you don't mind getting a brand new set ;-)

 

that is why you get test pipes.........LOL....

 

RT cats are warrantied for 2 years. I doubt they will give you your money back unless you sue them. But I would definately ask for a replacement.

i am still unsure how common this. The 350Z community has purchased 100's and 100's of these cats over the past couple years, and I have only heard of about 5-10 confirmed instances of destruction. I mean...if 1-5% of these are failing, that is not too bad...is it?

 

is there any way to check them without actually taking them off and look at the insides??

 

I plan on going for the replacements, because they still ARE under warrenty. I am then giving my replacements to ZU L8TR becuase of a deal we had worked out.

Unfortuantly, the only way to see if your Cats are damaged are to remove them and take a look inside like I illustrated in the pictures on page 1.

 

yeah...I wish you could just unbolt the exhuast and peek inside...but you probably wanna look at the exhuast manifold side for a better view of the damage. Those bolts are a pain to get to when you are laying on your back.

 

DAng! That cat got busted sick!