stumbling DOHC

[mx3optidrive]

I had this problem along with bad mileage for a while now. When I first had the car, it was getting around 400-450 kms per tank and up til last week, I was just barely getting over 300 kms per tank. I took off my catylitic converter closest to the exhaust manifold (looked like a canister) and drilled it out and beat it until everything was out of it. I am lucky because we don't have emission testing here. I put it back on and now the car has a lot more torque and overall performance is up, stumbling is gone and I am now getting around the same 400-450kms per tank of gas. If you never replaced your cat, I would recommend it because mine was clogged almost to the point where the car was not going to start someday. Good luck.

Jeff

[manowar821]

wait, our cars have 2 cat's? I have the sohc by the way.
How do you gut a cat?

[mykel78]

Thanks for posting!! I was beginning to wonder...So, thanks
Manowar, agreed! It had been hanging for a long time with seemingly no effect, The plastic piece on the airbox had snapped. I installed the SOHC intake from e-bay. It had nothing for it to connect, so I got a vacuum hose elbow piece and drilled out a little hole in the present setup and connected it (used a Dremel) I also had to use a little teflon and elect tape to properly connect the thumb sized hose (ISC Valve) to the intake (hose connector too small) Random tubes?NO
Distributor has been replaced.
Opti and Man: Yes, we have two Cat's. The 'preburner?' is the little canister, the 'main' is further down the exhaust, the second largest part of the exhaust, #1: muffler.
My main was already gutted when I bought the car, my first mod was gutting the other, back in 98. I lost my first car to the wonders of cat's, i WILL NOT lose another. BTW, O2 sensor is pre-cat, so gutting will not affect its performance.
Also, checked out the temp sender, BAD! and I was wrong They do have the part, I was looking at the wrong thing part number SU4007, Wells.

[mykel78]

oops! How to gut a Cat, it may be against the law, be advised, but I don't care (we don't have required emissions tests in OK, yet ), here it is:
take it out, I used a drill with the largest bit to break some up, looks like honeycomb, but you can see through it, then a hammer with a long screwdriver to break up the rest. You will have to raise the car to get to them.
oh yeah, not sure if SOHC is same, but I would presume it to be at least very similar.