Eastern Catalytic Suuuuuuucks! (formerly: Need help QUICK)

[skizix]

(NOTE: changed the thread title -- read 4 posts down for the reason why...)

 

Just received an Eastern Catalytic bolt-in replacement cat for my '02 OBW. Looks like a decent unit, but after removing my old one, comparing side-by-side, and preparing to install the new one...the new one seems to have an issue, and I'm not sure what to do.

 

The rear joint to the cat assembly is a flex joint -- has spring-loaded bolts and a "donut" gasket. On the old cat, the pipe continues about 1" aft of the rear flange; donut slides on there, then the whole thing seats into the rear exaust pipe. On the new cat, the rear pipe ends flush with the rear flange. Does not stick out past it at all, and there's nothing to slide the donut gasket on to. They obviously knew the setup, since they included the proper-looking donut gasket with the cat.

 

So, what to do? I think the rig will bolt together ok, but while the donut is seated properly in the rear pipe, the junction with the cat pipe will consist of: the flat side of the donut merely smooshed against the flange. Will that seal properly? I'm skeptical, but it might be ok.

 

The thing is: I don't want to mount up the unit if I might be returning it. But I'd like to mount it to see if it works ok (and then keep it). But...will this setup work ok, then fail prematurely?

 

What would you do:

 

1) Not mount the new unit -- put the old back on, return the new, do the work again later w/ some other unit.

 

2) Mount it, and if it does not seal properly, get on the phone and *************** until I get to return it anyway (if I even loose just shipping 'cause the unit is poorly designed, it's going to piss me off -- loosing the time spent under car is bad enough).

 

In any case, can we agree that this thing is not built "to OEM specs", as advertised? One other weird thing is: it has a third O2 sensor socket, on the back end of the rear cat. Not worried, as I'm going to plug it with my old o2 sensor, but...what is up with that?

[nipper]

#2, they have been selling these things for a while, and they rarely get a return. I know what your talking about. As long as your exhaust hangers are in good shape, it should be fine.

If you do call them, be nice, dont yell. Its the second call you yell at them, not the first.

 

 

nipper

[skizix]

Ok, thanks. That helps for sure.

 

One more thing: I bought an OEM donut-gasket, thinking the new cat would not include that part, but it did come with one. Looks same shape, but the aftermarket donut looks "smooshier" (old one looks almost like metallic fiberglass; new one looks like nothing but layers of soft metal - lead?). So I figured I'd for sure use the OEM gasket, but now I'm not so sure. Think the new one is designed to work better with the "modified" flex joint?

 

And given less contact with the pipe (well, none...contacts flange only), think I should consider using some kind of high-temp gasket-in-a-tube to seal the donut against the flange?

[nipper]

Just bolt it together with what it came with and see what happens.

 

nipper

[skizix]

Well, here's how it worked out...

 

EASTERN CATALYTIC CAN KISS MY HAIRY rump roast RIGHT IN THE CRACK!!!!!!!

 

I don't know what kind of drunken morons they have working the factory over there, but there are three point of connection for the cat, and zero of three of them are made correctly.

 

The rear flex joint, as described above, had no tailing pipe to seat and align the donut gasket. Not that big a deal, but WTF? After I first assembled it, the pipes were out of alignment with each other, had to loosen and slide the pipes into alignment -- with the pipe extension, it would have centered itself. To top it off, the rear flange is welded on crooked. Being a flex joint, it still seals, but bolted tight, the bottom of the flanges touch, but the top leaves a ~3/16" gap.

 

The support bracket that comes off the side was whacked too. It did not clear the stuff under the car. Had to bend the end of it way out of the way. Plus the slots that the bolt goes into are too small for the bolt; had to grind out the slot about 1/16". Plus, it tilts the wrong way; had to bend it again. Plus, there are two adjustable slots for the bolt, with a strip of metal in between. That strip just happens to be exactly where the bolt wanted to sit; had to flex the whole assembly sideways a bit to fit it.

 

But those two things, if pathetic, I could work with.

 

The killer was: the front flange is welded on crooked, in such a way that in order for the flange to line up with my y-pipe flange, the converter would have to protrude up through the floor of the car. After tightening the flange bolts, the bottom of the flanges touched, but the top had about a 1/8" gap. I could see plainly that the gasket was not going to seal. But having done all the work, I started the car. Got under it, and...the front y-pipe flange joint is leaking like crazy.

 

Utter and complete worthless junk!!! I hope I can get a refund. Then looks like I'm taking monday morning off work, getting an OEM cat, and doing the job over. SUCKY!

[jjou812]

search this site. the consensus is "Eastern Catalytic Suuuuuuucks!". use Walker or oem

[skizix]

So somebody want to let me know how to search the site properly? I did search in this case, but this site seems set up so that searching for multiple words are OR'd. That is, entering "eastern catalytic" on the search page returns all pages containing "eastern", and all pages containing "catalytic". I.e. mostly superfluous junk.

 

Is there a way to search for <1 word, in an "AND" fashion? That would've avoided this whole B.S. issue. Really limits the usefulness of the forum, I have to say.

[jjou812]

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=57009&highlight=eastern+catalytic

[nipper]

Well, here's how it worked out...

 

EASTERN CATALYTIC CAN KISS MY HAIRY rump roast RIGHT IN THE CRACK!!!!!!!

 

I don't know what kind of drunken morons they have working the factory over there, but there are three point of connection for the cat, and zero of three of them are made correctly.

 

The rear flex joint, as described above, had no tailing pipe to seat and align the donut gasket. Not that big a deal, but WTF? After I first assembled it, the pipes were out of alignment with each other, had to loosen and slide the pipes into alignment -- with the pipe extension, it would have centered itself. To top it off, the rear flange is welded on crooked. Being a flex joint, it still seals, but bolted tight, the bottom of the flanges touch, but the top leaves a ~3/16" gap.

 

The support bracket that comes off the side was whacked too. It did not clear the stuff under the car. Had to bend the end of it way out of the way. Plus the slots that the bolt goes into are too small for the bolt; had to grind out the slot about 1/16". Plus, it tilts the wrong way; had to bend it again. Plus, there are two adjustable slots for the bolt, with a strip of metal in between. That strip just happens to be exactly where the bolt wanted to sit; had to flex the whole assembly sideways a bit to fit it.

 

But those two things, if pathetic, I could work with.

 

The killer was: the front flange is welded on crooked, in such a way that in order for the flange to line up with my y-pipe flange, the converter would have to protrude up through the floor of the car. After tightening the flange bolts, the bottom of the flanges touched, but the top had about a 1/8" gap. I could see plainly that the gasket was not going to seal. But having done all the work, I started the car. Got under it, and...the front y-pipe flange joint is leaking like crazy.

 

Utter and complete worthless junk!!! I hope I can get a refund. Then looks like I'm taking monday morning off work, getting an OEM cat, and doing the job over. SUCKY!

 

Man that sucks. The way you were talking i was hoping it was workable. With the other two just send it back. Glad you renamed the thread, it will help anyone search and come up with this thread.

 

nipper