Getting the Y pipe out is a pain. I had to drop the sway bar down and support the transmission and transfer case while I dropped the transmission support. As I was getting the pipe down I could hear something rattling inside. I thought maybe I found the nut I lost before.
When I pulled the pipe out from under the car I could see right away there were issues with the catalysts on both sides. I tipped it up to dump the nut out. Um...
This stuff poured out.
Closer look you start to see some structure.
Yep. That used to be the honeycomb catalyst. Note that I didn't break these up. Both sides were shattered into crumbs and were blocking the pipe. I ordered the new Y pipe before I took this out but it'll be days before it comes. Meanwhile I'm going to finish hollowing this pipe out and put it back in place to examine what I did to the engine.
I've got this lump sitting in my basement. I have to figure out what I'll do with it.
Having seen the blockage I now have a better understanding of what happened to my old engine. The AFM might not be the culprit. The blockage pressurized the block and blew the oil out any way it could. That turned out to be into the intake manifold where it exacerbated the issue by further blocking the catalyst.
