I picked up an NA `88 that had been sitting in a field for a couple of years. It's my first rotary and a project car. I plan to tear it down, put it back together, see if it runs and have fun in the process.

When I first looked under the car I found the air pump hose appeared to have melted off of the cat and the pipe to the cat was clogged.


I pulled the mid pipe of the two pre cats and the cat. The first pre cat has rusted through in parts and I can see a white material laying under the metal.


I then took a look in the cat to see what caused the hose to melt off and clog the pipe. I was surprised to see this.
(the thin lines are spider webs.)

Where is the converter material that people talk about punching out? I searched all over about gutting cats for a picture but didn't find one. Is this a gutted cat or is the material sandwiched between the metal? That doesn't make sense to me.

I was unable to get a detailed history of the car. Do you think the melted air pump hose indicates the cat clogged and would a clogged cat contribute to a motor overheating? All answers or help are appreciated. This is a great site and I can tell I'll spend a lot of time reading here.

 

some times what happens is when the cat fails it disinagrates and floes into the other cats. or flows out the exhaust. also some one could have all ready gutted them. so you might have lucked out and dont have to gut them :P

 

Anyone else have a hose melt off like that?

 

The cat acts as a scondary burn. Meaning that the output is going to be hotter than cat input. The air hose melting like that could have been caused from continuous misfires causing raw fuel to enter and burn in the cat. Which could have caused the cat to fail as well.