I just got my camaro back after both cats were replaced by the dealer under warranty. It says on the bottom of the slip, recommended break in period of 500 miles. What do you do to break in Cats? and is it normal for them to smell like burning dust when you first drive it?

Thank you for your help

Zach

 

anyone can correct me if i'm wrong, but the break in is how long you should wait to do any kind of hard driving. i've never actually heard of breaking in cats, that's just my assumption.

as far as the burning smell, you'll almost always have a slight burning smell after new exhaust parts are installed. it doesn't last very long and should disappear before you know it.

 

Thanks for your help

 

I say hammer it right away. The catalyst is designed to function best at extremely high temps. Maybe go through a couple heat cycles all the way hot, all the way cold etc.

 

Well I would imagine that the break in time would be the same from OEM to Our Converters. You need to drive about 500 miles Highway Speeds and then let the car completely cool off and do it again. So if you drive the freeway to work lets say. The car will get up to Temp. Then while you are at work it cools down. Then when you leave the car gets back up to temp etc. Just do this till you reach about 500 miles. What this is doing is allowing the coating to bake into the ceramic brick.

 

After Cat Converter is installed let it idle for 5 minutes (no throttle), then hold rpm's at 2500 for 2 minutes then shut it down. After cool down it is broken in and ready to drive.