Cat Converter Honeycomb

Asking the experts.....

So.. I pick up scrap from this German guy, heavy accent, who works on German cars out of his home garage; BMW and Mercedes to be exact. On my last pickup from him, about 3 weeks ago, there were several exhaust systems, including the cats. 4 cats and one precat all together. So naturally I am excited. I cut the cats off the exhaust to find all but one are empty and figured he had taken the honeycomb out. Oh well. The cat that was full I set aside. One of the empty Mercedes cat I also set aside thinking maybe I am not seeing something and was planning on taking to my buddy who is a mechanic and asking questions. (You know, wishful thinking). I scrapped the rest of the exhausts and empty cats.

I went this morning to pick up more scrap from this guy. He had called me yesterday for a pick up but I was working out of town and could not be there until the morning. He said he had aluminum wheels among other things. Sometime after he called me and before I picked up the scrap someone else had taken the wheels.

When I showed up this morning the guy said he felt bad because someone showed up and took the wheels after he called me. So he decided to give me the honeycomb he had taken out of the cats.

The weight of the honeycomb is about 10 lbs. I figure that is probably 3 or 4 cats worth of honeycomb. But I am asking folks here on SMF who have more expertise about items of this nature.

How can I prove the honeycomb is out of Mercedes and BMW other than having one of the empty Mercedes cats? Because obviously some cats are worth more than others.

You can’t prove it unfortunately. You might, if you are very lucky, get a buyer to pay you for the cats if you show him the shells. No shells then you have a tough case to argue.

To do an assay would cost $300. You can’t determine a close estimate without the shell. Country roads and interstate driving..... I don’t see the logic of how that determines the recovery. Cars have air filters and it’s run threw the engine.

So if you use your car as a dune buggy, smash it off of rocks, hit potholes, etc. yes you can potentially loose some material.

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

I was hoping we would get confirmation from our resident North of the border but I can only assume he must be on vacation........I would guess if you posted pics here someone may be more inclined to make offer

Mike it might be a while before he posts again. I'm sure he's here as a guest but cannot login and reply to posts. His ISP's IP address is possibly being blocked by the forum.

I am a little bummed out about it. When I first pick up the exhaust systems I set them aside for a couple weeks until I had time to cut them up. I did that, scrapped them and a week later the guy calls and and gives me the good stuff. No good deed goes unpunished. (that saying probably dose'nt fit here but I am using it anyway.

Less than 1-2% of catalytic converters have an “air pipe” going to it.

Originally Posted by hills

It does seem kind of farfetched.

Just for the sake of argument : Could it be that the air being introduced on the upstream end of the cat by the air pump (smog pump) isn't run through the air filter first ?

I can't remember how the thermactor system piping is run. Haven't had to deal with one in awhile.

Edited to add: Ahh ... i just remembered. It's not that uncommon for the metal air tube that goes from the air pump to the cat to corrode out and break off.

That would most definitely cause the cat to draw in bad air and every bit of road crap that's down under the vehicle. Road sand, rain, snow,slush, road salt ... you name it.

Originally Posted by APA

Less than 1-2% of catalytic converters have an “air pipe” going to it.

True enough. Most of my experience has been w/ Ford Vans & Pickups.

Thing is ... there generally needs to be some means of pressurized fresh air induction upstream of the cat.That's oftentimes done with a smog pump aka air pump. The air pumps tend to have their own air intake and filtering system.

Not that it matters all that much. It's still a pretty thin argument when they say country driving is harder on a cat than city driving. It's hard to figure out why that would be so.

Originally Posted by APA

To do an assay would cost $300. You can’t determine a close estimate without the shell. Country roads and interstate driving..... I don’t see the logic of how that determines the recovery. Cars have air filters and it’s run threw the engine.

Your loosing your credibility, show me a receipt from which you paid $300.00 for a platinum, palladium and rhodium assay.

That three element assay cost me $100.00 if I request gold its an extra $25.00 at American Analytical Services, Inc.

American Analytical Services, Inc. | Metallurgical, Environmental, and Chemical Testing Laboratory in Osburn, Idaho

Originally Posted by nutpie

Asking the experts.....

So.. I pick up scrap from this German guy, heavy accent, who works on German cars out of his home garage; BMW and Mercedes to be exact. On my last pickup from him, about 3 weeks ago, there were several exhaust systems, including the cats. 4 cats and one precat all together. So naturally I am excited. I cut the cats off the exhaust to find all but one are empty and figured he had taken the honeycomb out. Oh well. The cat that was full I set aside. One of the empty Mercedes cat I also set aside thinking maybe I am not seeing something and was planning on taking to my buddy who is a mechanic and asking questions. (You know, wishful thinking). I scrapped the rest of the exhausts and empty cats.

I went this morning to pick up more scrap from this guy. He had called me yesterday for a pick up but I was working out of town and could not be there until the morning. He said he had aluminum wheels among other things. Sometime after he called me and before I picked up the scrap someone else had taken the wheels.

When I showed up this morning the guy said he felt bad because someone showed up and took the wheels after he called me. So he decided to give me the honeycomb he had taken out of the cats.

The weight of the honeycomb is about 10 lbs. I figure that is probably 3 or 4 cats worth of honeycomb. But I am asking folks here on SMF who have more expertise about items of this nature.

How can I prove the honeycomb is out of Mercedes and BMW other than having one of the empty Mercedes cats? Because obviously some cats are worth more than others.

You'll be lucky to get $4.00 a pound from a buyer, try ebay for a better price.

Originally Posted by APA

So if you use your car as a dune buggy, smash it off of rocks, hit potholes, etc. yes you can potentially loose some material.

On the filter minder as shown below, a brand new filter will run in the green indicating that as the engine vacuum drawing fresh air its freely passing through the paper element.

As the paper filter become clogged with dust and other junk the filter minder monitors the vacuum required to pull fresh air into the intake manifold. when the minder reaches into the red zone its like someone had placed a plastic bag over your face. You can no longer breath.

The paper filter element relies on a compression fit, a rubber gasket molded into the top and bottom of the filter must make secure contact to assure there's no leakage. This gasket will not maintain 100 percent of its ability when the paper element becomes clogged there will be some dust passing by.

This fine dust will pass through the engine, causing excessive cylinder and piston ring wear and sandblasting some of the precious metals wash ocat from the catylitic converter as it pass's through to the environment.

Vehicles living in the city driving on pavement experience much less dust than their country cousins, it's all about filter maintenance.

This information has been verified from two assays, one from cats collected in the city and my own from a rural environment. The rural was valued at one third of those coming from the city.

Cat buyers are full of it.

Now I'm going back on vacation.

Originally Posted by APA

So if you use your car as a dune buggy, smash it off of rocks, hit potholes, etc. yes you can potentially loose some material.

How much proof do you need, Cody's Lab published this youtube video May of 2016.

Knowledge is POWER.

*Its you are not your.

$300 is what my refinery would charge me for a small batch. The $300 will be deducted from my gross total. Thank you.

Your place there is nice but they aren’t paying for results.

Yes if you are not taking general maintenance of your car, you can damage the catalytic converter. If you drive on pavement and run your car too hot by not taking care of your radiator, you will also damage your catalytic converter.

For your group of “city” converters and “country” converters to have unbiased and true results, you would have to have all the same exact PGM content converters in both the city cars and country cars. All factors must be the same to pinpoint the “city” driving and “country” driving as the only single factor for a PGM content difference.

Originally Posted by Snowman18

Your loosing your credibility, show me a receipt from which you paid $300.00 for a platinum, palladium and rhodium assay.

That three element assay cost me $100.00 if I request gold its an extra $25.00 at American Analytical Services, Inc.

American Analytical Services, Inc. | Metallurgical, Environmental, and Chemical Testing Laboratory in Osburn, Idaho

Cody’s lab YouTube video is hardly proof or knowledge. Some goofy hip millennials making some money on YouTube, that’s all it is.

Originally Posted by Snowman18

How much proof do you need, Cody's Lab published this youtube video May of 2016.

Knowledge is POWER.