Alex, was just looking at your Blog page and noticed that you mention O2 simulators. My cats are dead (not heating up and below threshold),....wondering if your simulators could get me through my upcoming state inspection if you get them sorted out. Have you made any progress on them?

Brian

 

Wow, lots of activity last night. Ok, maybe clear some confusion.

Charlie and Joe, pretty much everything the two of you posted is correct. I believe that our filters are becoming oily is because our oil separators are dicked. That is, of course, making the assumption that both of yours are dicked, but I happen to know that mine are on both sides. I can even pull the one off of the passengers side and there is pancake batter in the tube. That's why I believe a long tube on the drivers side then the filter would cure the issue. Whether its right or wrong... Well I like that it prevents me from burning as much (almost any) oil. Pretty much an immeasurable amount, only the miniscule bit that makes it past the rings. Technically, yes, against most state laws, but I still believe it to be the right decision after all the research I've done.

Brian, I never was able to get the O2 simulators to work and damn near caught my truck on fire. Burnt the hell out of my hand, those resistors get HOT. However, you can look at my header thread (linked in the first post on this thread) and I believe there is a link to an O2 spacer. That will full the computer, but if your state does a visual inspection under the truck they will likely see them and fail you. I recommend either getting your cat replaced or cutting them both out and using the spacers because a bad cat will eventually increase back pressure to the point of a lot of power loss. If you replace and end up going with a high flow cat, replace both cats with high flow in order to keep equal pressure on both sides of the engine so that you do not increase pressure on the crank which can eventually lead to stress and premature failure.

 

Hmmm, This is the second time I have read of someone having a big reduction in oil consumption after eliminating the oil separator (the other reference was on another LR forum).

Could it be that simple?

My oil consumption ranges between a quart every 600 miles and a quart every 900 miles or so (which I have read is considered acceptable by LR), and although I never see smoke evident at the tailpipe, I can always smell burning oil when I walk around the back of my running truck. Have yet to do a leak down test,....not looking forward to it,....seems like it will be a long process, having watched youtube videos on how it is done on a 4 cylinder.

 

Alex, found your link for the O2 spacers,.....will these cure the "catalytic converter below threshold" DTC and related CEL?

 

I bought some o2 spacers on eBay once during my (continuing) rebellious phase but it was because I had no catalytic converters. They didn't fit, so be sure to confirm the size. As I understood their purpose, they simply moved the o2 element out of the stream of exhaust, resulting in lower readings (of whatever... Carbon monoxide? I have no idea) and tricking the computer into thinking the cats were aces.

 

The long angled ones I posted will work. They have to me an M18 thread and MUST be the long angled ones. I've tried long straight ones, they do not work. The long angled ones I actually have on my own truck with no cats and it works perfectly.

That's actually a pretty fair amount if oil consumption. I probably add a quart every 300 miles, but that's from leaking and not from burning. My truck burns zero measurable oil.

 

Wow, that's a lot of leaking Alex. My prior 2002 Disco had numerous leaks when I bought it. I was looking at the service history that came with it and noticed it had had a recent oil change using Full Synthetic. I drained and refilled with non synthetic,....and AMAZINGLY,.....ALL the leaking stopped.

 

I agree. I try to use Rotella in it, but right now I think it actually has Pennzoil 5w30 with a zinc additive just because I had it laying around. Should be coming up for an oil change before long though, and she'll go back to Rotella so it should clear some of that up.

 

I was running Rotella 15/40 for a long time and adding a quart every 600 miles or so,.....switched to Castrol 20-50 and that has slowed it down to about a quart every 900 miles. I live in Central Texas,.....so,....hoping the higher viscosity is a non issue.

Also recently switched my transfer case from 85-140 full synthetic in hopes is would slow down leaks from it,....seems to have helped with the leak,....but a surprise secondary effect was that my driveline "CLUNK" that I have always had when lifting my foot off the accelerator went away completely with the change to non-synthetic. Wasn't expecting that,....but happy to have it quieter now.

 

bcolins
I have a bad cat on passenger side and got this and it cured the code.

By the way, My rollers are at Dripping Springs Post Office, waiting for me to pick them up tomorrow. Got an email and said they attempted delivery on April 1.