[s-cars] EM and heat question

[CyberPoet]

Thank's for the info, Serge, and I appreciate the
input. Without a doubt, the inside of your engine
compartment is enjoying the benefit. By the way, how
much did you pay for the coating?

As for my logic: I remain with my original op-ed --
cats are designed to run in a specific temperature
range, and if they become too hot, they fail. In an
ideal world, they heat up very quickly (since they do
not work properly when cold in terms of
chemical-exchange processing), but the reality is that
they never fail by being too cool (just fail to work
well at purging under about 240 degrees Fahrenheit),
where as if they exceed somewhere between 550 and 700
degrees Fahrenheit (depending on the design and
manufacturer), the substrate under the platinum will
fail. As long as the engine is running perfectly, even
with the exhaust coating, this shouldn't happen, but if
it's not, it would be that much sooner to failure.
Typical failure is induced by a misread data from an O2
sensor, or a failing / failed O2 sensor, inducing some
fuel to still present after the exhaust valve opens,
thus permitting that unspent fuel to burn in the
exhaust header and raising the temp downstream beyond
the cat's ability to handle it. With the coating in
place as you have, I would somewhat accelerate the OEM
manufacturer's O2 sensor replacement schedule just to
stay on the safe side (O2 sensors being infinitely
cheaper & easier to replace than catalytic converters).

Cheers
=-= Marc
Tampa Macintosh Help
www.cyberpoet.net

On Saturday, July 12, 2003, at 06:27 PM, serge wrote:

> I am no expert, but I was under the impression that catalytic
> converters are
> the hottest part of your exhaust system due to the chemical exchange
> that
> happens within, and that the hotter the exhaust temp. the better.