Bummer. I need a new cat. Mileage has been going south and now it is atrocious. 8 MPG on a good day. Calculated load is between 50 and 65% and the o212 is jumping all over the place. I measured the temps with a infra red thermometer and the cat is dead.. Really dead. 92k miles on it is all.

I have to wait till December to get one along with my annual upgrade purchases.

Any one have a suggestion as a manufacturer? Tousley wants about $1600 plus shipping for a OEm with 100k warranty. Aftermarket is $500 or less but are warranted for 50k miles only.

Anybody got experience with an aftermarket unit?

 

My experience has been that aftermarket cats use a substance to secure the substrate that is less than ideal. As well, usually the substrate isn't as well made as OEM, hence the cheaper cost.

I've had an aftermarket cat fail, and the substrate came loose, which began to vibrate, break loose, then rattle, and completely crumble, blowing all the substrate out the tailpipe.

Stewart

 

Seems like you could just remove the cat and re-install it whenever you go it to get inspected (if you have that in NJ). I'm just sayin

 

Very tempting.... yeah we get inspected for only one thing anymore. Emissions and NOX. The cat is a must for inspection. You can come in without a windshield, brakes, windows, lights, or horn, and if you pass emissions, you get a sticker. Go figure.

 

Very good to know, Stewart. Do you remember what brand it was?
I was leaning on getting the Ford OEM anyway.

 

nevermind on deleting the cat. Not an option for me. I remembered that I have California OBDII emissions. I have a O2 after the Cat. So no delete.

 

Bion, I *think* it was MagnaFlow, but it was around 8 years ago, so I'm not certain.

Stewart

 

Most aftermarket cats are crap, even when you get the premium "heavy load" which is supposed to be Cali compliant. We still run into efficiency issues, with proper fuel trim etc all checked out... As you have cali, go OEM.

 

You absolutely MUST make sure to find out what killed your factory cat before replacing it. From everything I've read the overwhelming majority of failed cats occur from an engine issue either overheating or contaminating the converter.

Look upstream for the culprit in a converter failure - Eastern Manufacturing

Being the cheap guy that I am, there is NO WAY I would ever pay $1,600 for a Motorcraft converter. Eastern Catalytic has a 5-year, 50,000 mile warranty on their converters and can be had for around a fifth of what you can get a Motorcraft part for.

RockAuto Parts Catalog

Never used them before, but based on the price, reputation, and warranty I'd buy one of these and not look back.

 

+1000 for proper diagnostics. I sold Eastern for many years. They even do nice custom work, and great customer service and support, on their 49 state stuff... Never had much luck on their California line, and neither have they. Which is why it is so slim.

 

Oh, I think I've got it pretty pat about what caused it.

Been getting puffs of blue smoke at start up again. Looks like it needs new valve seals. Just another day long job to schedule in to do. Probably get around to it in October. That seems to be when I'll get time.

Remove Fuel rails, Remove Alternator. Pull the left rocker valve cover. Remove bolts to the engine mounts. use engine support bar lift to raise engine slightly. remove RH valve cover. Spend 3 to 5 hours rotating engine to top on cylinder, pull plug and put shop air in chamber, remove spring replace seal, replace spring and keeper, repeat on all 10 cylinders .
Install RH valve cover , lower engine, attach engine mounts, install LH valve cover, install fuel rails, wiring hoses and air cleaner.

Cross fingers and hope it worked out right and no leaks.

Do not drop valve into cylinder. It will require engine removal to remove head. Would be a bad day.

 

Here's the scoop on warranties. Emissions warranties are not a choice for the manufacturers. It is a term mandated by federal law.

If your vehicle is less than 8500 lb GVWR, then the federally mandated warranty is 8 years, 80,000 miles for the cat.. That leaves out the Excursion.

If your vehicle is more than 8500 lb GVWR, then the Federally mandated warranty is 5 years, 50,000 miles for all parts including the catalystic converter. This includes the Excursion.

So the Ford Warranty, even the one that came with the vehicle new, is no better than the aftermarket ones.

 

For what it's worth I got 220 bucks for my cat off the parts truck (recycling it). So if you DIY you can get something back no comparison to 1600 but something

 

So if the valve seals are toast, what caused them to wear out?

In my former life of building engines, the only valve seals I saw fail were on engines that 1) sat for long periods of time or 2) had valve guide issues.

 

Restlesswildman has a good point, that's not exactly a common issue. The 4.6L from '92-'94 was famous for wearing out valve seals, but after that they were uncommon to fail. I believe the V10 uses the same valve seals that the 4.6L does. Come to think of it, I can't think of one other issue I've ever read about of bad valve seals in one of these engines.