Catalytic Converter clogged up?

[CTroxtell]

From what I've been reading I'm wondering if my cat isn't clogged up, the truck has 246k miles on it. I replaced my egr valve, replaced the DPFE, cleared the egr port on the throttle body. After doing this work it kept blowing the hoses off of the DPFE, after getting the hoses to stay on it blew a hole in the side of the biggest hose. The truck as lost its power over a period of time, finally got rid of all the check engine lights. Randomly it threw a 124, 157, and 158, the TPS has been replaced and the MAF has been cleaned. The truck has extremely poor acceleration going up any incline and some days it is much worse then others.

 

[waskly]

cats are clogged if the hoses blow off. you can probably drop the cats, down and see if performance improves.

 

[Roadrunner777]

See if you can get your O2 sensors out, even one of them, and try a quick drive (yes, probably more codes, so clear them afterwards). If it gets better, then clogged cats.

 

[CTroxtell]

I will try that when I get home, I can tell a difference it feels like just from pulling that big hose off the dpfe all the way. It don't seem to struggle near as much, will post back later with results.

 

[MrShorty]

One of the common test I see mentioned is a vacuum test. If engine vacuum goes to zero (especially at higher RPM), that can suggest that the exhaust is clogged somewhere.

 

[waskly]

One of the common test I see mentioned is a vacuum test. If engine vacuum goes to zero (especially at higher RPM), that can suggest that the exhaust is clogged somewhere.

at wot there is no engine vacuum. ..................

 

[CTroxtell]

I pulled the O2 sensor out on the driver side, seemed to make a difference. I put it in gear and the idle was steady instead of fluxing and about stalling like it normally does. I got on the gas from a standstill and it actually started to rev up and move instead of about stalling. I got on the highway and could still feel a little hesitation around 55 or 60 but that might be because the O2 sensor wasn't in to give feedback about the exhaust and the hose missing from the dpfe...what's your thoughts?

 

[waskly]

look at the size of the exhaust pipe and the little hole for exhaust, which is why i said to drop the cats down.

 

[CTroxtell]

look at the size of the exhaust pipe and the little hole for exhaust, which is why i said to drop the cats down.

I would of dropped the cats down if I would of had the time to do that, but considering the bolts connecting it all together looked quite rusted on I figured it was take a bit more time to break all that loose and put back together...246k miles of exhaust heat has done some work to those bolts.

 

[Roadrunner777]

clogged cats, my diagnosis. Just to cover the bases, another cause would be an exhaust obstruction, like a crushed exh pipe, or an object shoved up the tailpipe. (did that to my schoolbus once, a whole potato. Not my proudest moment.)

 

[waskly]

i'm still going with cats, only thing that will cause dpfe hoses to pop or melt, normally they melt from the exhaust temps is cats... or the muffler is bent, but if the exhaust system is not kinked, you need cats.

 

[CTroxtell]

Okay can anyone explain this...I let the engine cool overnight and screwed and plugged the O2 sensor back in this morning before heading to work. The engine is running just as good with it conncected as it was with it out. How is this possible? The truck has done this before...it will run like crap then out of no where it will start running like nothings wrong with it...

 

[CTroxtell]

Well it ran fine until yesterday evening when it was so hot outside. Started doing its popping sound in the engine, now the idle is around 1k rpm and its fluctuating...it won't hold steady and the engine has gone back to its no power mode especially on inclines.

 

[FIND]

Clogged cat or stuck EGR, most likely a clogged cat. Go to an exhaust shop and have your cat tested.