Honda 18150-PE0-662 Converter Assembly

The most obvious part of emission controls is the catalytic converter. It's function is to combine unburned hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide(CO) with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide (CO2). It also breaks down oxides of nitrogen (NOx). The catalyst operates in a very narrow range of air/fuel concentration. The oxygen sensor in the exhaust system converts the unused oxygen concentration to a voltage which the ECU reads. The ECU constantly adjusts engine air/fuel ratio to provide the proper gas feed to the catalyst. This is a totally passive device, in that there are no actuators or sensors. It has no influence on the operation of the engine, unless it has melted and causes high exhaust back pressure. If this is suspected, the catalyst can be removed for inspection. By looking into the catalyst inlet, it should be possible to look through almost all of the passages in the honey comb pattern ceramic blocks. If there is any melting which may cause high back pressure, it will be quite obvious. On some vehicles, the catalyst is mounted directly to the exhaust manifold, on others it is farther downstream. On all vehicles, the catalytic converter is before the muffler.

While with some car models it is located in direct line under the vehicle with others it is bolted to the header pipe. To remove and install the converter, the vehicle has to be lifted to a certain position using a jack, and thereafter supported on some stands. New, unbolt the front catalytic converter flange at the flex joint, after that dispose the flex joint gasket followed by the removal of the rear U-bolt connection. Remove nuts of connections that are on the inlet and the outlet of the catalytic converter in order to do away with the converter. To install the converter fix the converter onto the muffler using a new flex joint gasket then secure the converter and muffler assembly to the inlet pipe/flex joint where the air hoses are connected and the U-bolt positioned. Bring the exhaust system into the proper alignment and then tighten all of the nuts and bolts beginning with the front; all pipe connecting bolts should be tightened to 16 ft. lb. The pipe to turbo gasket, flange bolt should be tightened to a torque of 22 N.m and for the pipe-to-converter bolt, header pipe-to-exhaust manifold bolts, converter-to-exhaust manifold bolts should be tightened to 35 ft. lbs. (34 Nm). Last of all, search for leakage in the system and then finally lower down the vehicle.