pre-cat's, catalyst honey comb broken now removed, California emissions system

[perrynick17]

The car is a 2006 ford Taurus se, it has 3 catalytic converters, 2 small pre cats that connect to the the engine exhaust manifold's (front and back side of engine) and converge into one pipe where the 3rd much larger catalytic converter connects

two o2 sensors are installed in the exhaust manifold's (before the pre cats ) and one is installed after the pre cats before the big catalytic converter

my problem is that my dam son dropped the pre cat setup on my garage floor, and one of the pre cat honey comb broke apart. the other one is still intact inside

I didn't want pieces of catalyst flying and hitting/clogging the rear big catalyst, so I removed the broken up honey comb from the one damaged pre cat, so now it is hallow space

the car has a California emissions system and my question's are

if I install a CEL eliminator spacer after the pre cats would this car still pass inspection in NYS

My theory is that my exhaust will be slightly hotter more toxic before hitting the big catalytic converter, but should the big catalytic converter still preform in cleaning the exhaust emissions with in reason to have a mechanic pass the vehicle for a smog test if one is done on this car, and should CEL eliminator give a good reading to the computer so no codes come up

 

[kanewolf]

The car is a 2006 ford Taurus se, it has 3 catalytic converters, 2 small pre cats that connect to the the engine exhaust manifold's (front and back side of engine) and converge into one pipe where the 3rd much larger catalytic converter connects

two o2 sensors are installed in the exhaust manifold's (before the pre cats ) and one is installed after the pre cats before the big catalytic converter

my problem is that my dam son dropped the pre cat setup on my garage floor, and one of the pre cat honey comb broke apart. the other one is still intact inside

I didn't want pieces of catalyst flying and hitting/clogging the rear big catalyst, so I removed the broken up honey comb from the one damaged pre cat, so now it is hallow space

the car has a California emissions system and my question's are

if I install a CEL eliminator spacer after the pre cats would this car still pass inspection in NYS

My theory is that my exhaust will be slightly hotter more toxic before hitting the big catalytic converter, but should the big catalytic converter still preform in cleaning the exhaust emissions with in reason to have a mechanic pass the vehicle for a smog test if one is done on this car, and should CEL eliminator give a good reading to the computer so no codes come up

It will depend on how long you think this will be driven. I would think that the small cats are for cold start. Close to the engine and small to heat quickly. Without it functioning, the main cat will get rich exhaust dumped into it every cold start. It wasn't designed to support that. It will probably clog or fail quickly. "Quickly" might mean months or years. I can't predict. But I can reasonably GUESS that it will fail more quickly than if the small cats were functioning.

 

[perrynick17]

its not hard to clean a dirty cat, I just want to get another year out of her before I have to dump the 1200$ for the complete c.a.r.b compliant set up. I did notice that they made a federal EPA variant for the 2005 and the cost is much less and its really hard to get one shipped to NYS but that probably means that it doesn't clean up the toxins as well and would fail a NYS INSPECTION

my hole thinking is that the rear cat is original to the vehicle so it was made for those emission laws but what your saying it wont last to long with the extra work load

 

[ttower2020]

The car is going to be designed for the emission system installed on it. If it is CARB compliant, it needs to remain CARB compliant. Also, depending on how the car is setup, and how sensitive the sensors are, it may not matter at all. Some cars are so picky with O2 sensor levels, the wrong brand of O2 sensor will trip a CEL code. Some cars it does not matter as much. As for how the main cat will react to the broken front cat, how bad was the damage? If there is only a small chunk missing, it may be fine, and not need anything. If the entire cat was hollowed out, and you can see right through it, then you will need to replace it. If you are already planning to replace it, like you seemed to mention, this is the best route. You can try O2 spacers, or O2 foulers, but nothing is guaranteed, and you may end up chasing issues until it is properly fixed. NY also does not do (in most counties anyway) an actual emissions test. The emissions test is basically determined by the CEL on the car. If the light is on, it will fail.