Catalytic Converters

The shit clogging the cat is baked on.
You do realize how hot a cat runs, right?

You can't even clean the carbon and oil deposits from the back of an intake valve without a wire brush, or extended soaking in the appropriate solvent.
The crap cooked into the cat is not water-soluble. "washing" it won't do anything other than promote rust in the cat.

More important....

Bang on the bottom of the cat with a hammer. Does it rattle? If so, do not drive the car until the cat is replaced. When these things go, the mesh often breaks loose from the casing. The core of the cat in my '95 Suburban was rolled up like a softball.
The cores have a habit of rolling back and plugging the outlet. Burn some exhaust valves real quick like that.

 

Yes, the crap in the cat is baked on, that's why acid or enzymes are needed. They are tiny creatures that eat greasy things...yum.

You might need to scrape the deposits off with a piece of wood. Platinum will not rust, that's not a concern. Oxalic Acid is used to neutralize rust anyhow.

At any rate, I'm about ready to try it; I don't want to pay big bucks for a new catalytic.\

My distributor on a honda went bad causing soot to build up. The car stalled and the cat was glowing red. It was melted. On my old toyota pickup years ago, the catalytic had a melted spot in the middle. If the cat is trashed, it will be apparent on inspection.

 

can you do me a favor and post the DIY? like before and after pics? thanks

 

You can find forum posts here and there, but not very detailed.

I will take pics if I ever get around to doing it. Right now the 0420 code is just pending. It might be the rear sensor, and they are just $56 shipped. I might go with an o2 simulator instead though. I just want all the mpg I can get.

I ran seafoam in my gas and after I ran it hard for a little while the idle smoothed out a little bit. The truck had a misfire from old plugs and probably sooted up the sensors and everything. It might clear up on its own.

The Tacoma catalytics are huge, and it takes a big trashcan to soak them. Acid makes sense though because it breaks down a lot of substances now matter how they were bonded.

 

well I already did it using citric acid.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/241619-catalytic-converter-acid-wash.html