[slvr302]

Larocca's are down right thieves!! I still have the same problem now after doing every single thing they suggested . Now they are blowing me off telling me my car is fine and take it somewhere else if I don't think so.

My problem: glowing catalytic converters

I spent close to $9000 there in the past 1.5 year plus I had to buy a new shortblock (not included in the $9000) because my newly rebuilt one blew up while they were dynoing for about the 20th time to see why my converters were overheating. They had my car 7 months and treated it like no one would want theirs to ever be. Left it parked under trees in a wet and weeded area across the street from the shop. Car looked like total $hit afterwards. Alot of my new stuff got rusty real quick.

My converters were glowing when I brought my car to them. They had me replace a brand new set of Roush 200 heads that were worked, a brand new Comp Cam XE274HR, my entire new MSD ignition, and my just rebuilt 306 after they killed it on the dyno. I was furious to say the least.

At this very point (before I went ahead with the new block) I asked Jimmy Larocca himself had my glowing converter issue been resolved. His answer was "Yes. Just go with the new sb from DSS and you will be good to go". So I decided to do so. This way it gives them no "out" to point the finger at anyone elses work if something doesn't work from this point on. I figured they have done everything and no one else has touched the car but them so there is no one else to blame.

Needless to say after the new motor was installed I came home with a very large bill only to my suprise to see that my cats were still glowing. I called back and said what the hell is going on. You told me that 100% my converter issue was fixed. Jimmy Larocca's answer was "If you converters are glowing now (as if they weren't before) then the converters are no good"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. After I just spent all this money they have the nerve to give me that answer. Couldn't they have determined that before I spent $9000 + $2300 for shortblock????
So I said to them I will buy a new set of hi-flow converters (Random Technologies) and I should be good from here? Larocca said "Yes". The cats cost me $380 alone (not including h-pipe). But before I could put them on my brand new Vortech started making a crazy whining noise. Bearing was messed up. It was all rusty looking along with my entire blower bracket from sitting for 7 months in that damp a$$ area that they had it parked in. I called Larocca up to ask if they could take the blower off so I could send it for repair. They said that I would have to wait one month before they could get to it. So I had a friend take it off.

When I got it back from Vortech my buddy put it back on then I took it back to Larocca's just to make sure nothing changed with the tune. At this time I just put the new converters on and even went so far as to have the car towed to Larocca just so there was no chance of me screwing the converters up by driving it there out of tune.

End result: Converters still glowing!!!! Jimmy Larocca says that it's fine and there is nothing more for them to do. He then asks what gas I am using. I say Sunoco 94. He says "try another gas. Sunoco 94 is all hype and actually has less octane than others." Is this crazy or what??????

My entire center console is almost burning to touch and is warped from so much heat. The cats get cherry red after 4 minutes idling. My car could literally catch fire from this.

Forget about all that stuff you read in the mags about Larocca. It's all BS.

This turmoil cost me $9000 + $2300 + $380 and I am still at the same place as when I started.

You may ask yourself "why not just put an offroad h-pipe on and be done with it" My answer is "My car smells to HOLY HELL like you have never ever smelled in your life. Not even from an all out race car!!"
I am going to attempt to get some money back by any means necessary.
Comments anyone?

[IndyBlk5.0]

Is is possible you could be overworking the converters? Blower motors in general push much more air. Much more fuel for that matter too.

[monsterstang70]

sue the hell out of them, at least for the parts they made you buy that didnt resolve the problem.

[kdog_x]

I would agree with the post above, there's probably not enough air getting to the converters. However, if your air pump works I don't know what else you could do about it except the O/R pipe. Thats crazy that they would make you buy all that stuff and then leave you hanging though. Pulling the motor to fix an exhaust problem is like cutting of your foot to fix a broken toe.

sue the bastards

[ECU5.0]

get a nice h-pipe with high flow cats...do you have the stock h-pipe on there? are you running a smog pump? the old style cats dont work for crap unless they have a smog pump putting oxygen in them and will heat up too much

[Stang8URMPRT]

Kill 'em! KILL 'EM!!!!!!!!!! I'll help! I hate shops that screw people like that. They are called parts changers... They don't know what the problem is so they just change parts until they hopefully replace whatever is bad. I would just chop their nuts off, and feed them to the cats. If I lived in Jersey, I'd help you plot an accidental fire. lmao. J/k.

Nick

[slvr302]

Originally Posted by ECU5.0

get a nice h-pipe with high flow cats...do you have the stock h-pipe on there? are you running a smog pump? the old style cats dont work for crap unless they have a smog pump putting oxygen in them and will heat up too much

Had a MAC hi-flow convertoer before. Now I have Random Technology converters which are top of the line...it doesn't get much better than them.

There is no smog pump and no 02 sensors. This is the way they have it. Says it's not a problem. Hell, they say there is no problem. Tuned with an Autologic chip.

[shttygtstang]

i dont know this company and i dont want to but if i were you ide be going to your local court house to file a claim its only 25 dollars contact bbb and go for the hle nine with contacting dmv get there repair lic. suspended dude thats some coin ide be plottin how to get them back big time

[shttygtstang]

or just wait till your car starts on fire and sue the crap out them **** start the fire your self just get somthing saying they fixed it then its there prob

[ECU5.0]

Originally Posted by slvr302

Had a MAC hi-flow convertoer before. Now I have Random Technology converters which are top of the line...it doesn't get much better than them.

There is no smog pump and no 02 sensors. This is the way they have it. Says it's not a problem. Hell, they say there is no problem. Tuned with an Autologic chip.

no 02 sensors? have you had your car dyno tuned? whats the air/fuel ratio? if youre making that kind of power you defintely need something for the computer to read. your probably running way to rich and all the unburnt fuel is igniting in the cats. definetly get some o2 sensors....ive never heard of a car that ran better without them

[shttygtstang]

i cant even to begin to feel your pain you sighned a waver for the dyno testing also huh

[kdog_x]

I can tell you from first hand experience that your cats don't last very long without the smog tube feeding air down there. Unless your car runs much cleaner than mine. From the smells you described I'd say it prolly doesnt.

Had brand new hi-flo's on my car for 2 days before one of the cats got fouled out and started rattling like crazy. Had it replaced, one week later same thing on the other side. Then I hollowed em out. No glowing for me, but I guess I just dont have enough power for that

[ECU5.0]

yeah, run your car for a long time and park it in a dry field with tall grass and watch it burn down and than sue them because they didnt fix the problem or warn you about something like that. actually happened to a buddys jeep when he went hunting. he had a clogged cat and it was glowing when he parked it in a field...came back to his car later that day and it was down to bare metal and nothing else.

[kdog_x]

Originally Posted by ECU5.0

no 02 sensors? have you had your car dyno tuned? whats the air/fuel ratio? if youre making that kind of power you defintely need something for the computer to read. your probably running way to rich and all the unburnt fuel is igniting in the cats. definetly get some o2 sensors....ive never heard of a car that ran better without them

I didn't even see that, if your car has a computer then you definitely need O2 sensors to run right (at least I think so anyway). How would it make any adjustments? I cant believe the shop wouldnt have at least checked that before pulling motors.

[slvr302]

Originally Posted by ECU5.0

no 02 sensors? have you had your car dyno tuned? whats the air/fuel ratio? if youre making that kind of power you defintely need something for the computer to read. your probably running way to rich and all the unburnt fuel is igniting in the cats. definetly get some o2 sensors....ive never heard of a car that ran better without them

Larocca has tuned it on the dyno plenty of times. Should I have to run behind these guys asking what my a/f ratio is etc. after I have paid all this money? I am not sure what the a/f is below 2600 rpms (dyno sheet doesnt show this) but I'd have to look at it to see. I dont have it with me right now.

[slvr302]

Originally Posted by kdog_x

I didn't even see that, if your car has a computer then you definitely need O2 sensors to run right (at least I think so anyway). How would it make any adjustments? I cant believe the shop wouldnt have at least checked that before pulling motors.

Larocca's took the O2s out. I was glowing with them in as well

[ECU5.0]

what was the a/f ratio? if you are running a computer in your car definetly put o2 sensors in it. thats just my opinion

[ECU5.0]

what size is your exhaust? this is troubling me, but im thinkin either the car is running way too lean, or its running way to rich. and you said if you dont have cats the car smells really bad so im guessing it runs too rich....which probably means that the unburnt fuel is burning in the cats. list your setup as far as fuel pressure/timing, exhaust components go

[kdog_x]

If it did the same with the o2 sensors in, and you really want to keep your cats. The only thing I can think to do would be to hook the smog pump back up to get some air down there -- it's gotta be running rich. If it were me I'd just hollow them out, but I like the "burn it in the field" approach too. Hope you figure something out.

Good Luck

[kdog_x]

Did you/them try pulling the trouble codes?

[shttygtstang]

burn that shaznac

[93 teal terror]

Obviously something is wrong......converters shouldnt heat up like that. I question when you say that if you run an off road h pipe the smell is unbearable. Ive been around a 550hp 95 cobra that had no cats and sure it smelled but it was not unbearable. You said that you had to use EPEC as a stand alone system to get it tuned right. When they told you that, that would have been when I stopped spending money on high dollar parts and returned the car back as close to stock as I could until you figure out the problem. If there is a problem with the harness to your computer, what does your wire harness look like? Is yours one of those cars where you pop the hood and all you see is spade connectors and wire nuts? First thing I would do is take off the supercharger, and reconnect your 02 sensors. I assume they can bypass the 02's with the EPEC system, but I would even go as far as to take the EPEC system off and hook the EEC back up. Get the car running right n/a and then if you want to add boost fine. If you still cant get the car to run right...take off all your expensive stuff, get an autoparts store rebuild motor and jump ship. Start with a car that runs well before you start adding stuff to it ESPECIALLY if you dont do your own work. Its one thing if you can spend all your weekends chassing down a problem, but as you found out it gets expensive when your paying for someone help.

Now Im not saying you deserved your treatment from them and I would be very pissed if my car was being stored in damp weeds. If I had had a problem for 7 months and then the owner comes and says "well looks like your screwed" I would be irate.

Just a thought but if you have too much back pressure maybe a 3" exhaust would help. I would have tried that before I tried a new motor and heads. what size headers are you running?

I do realize that you had this problem before they took the car in, but you said that your headers were glowing and they fixed that. Im wondering if maybe once they fixed that problem there was simply too much back pressure in the exhaust. You said they tried a stock h pipe??? a 2 1/4" non mandrel bent h pipe with 500rwhp??? Its not wonder it got hot.

Not trying to be an ass, just trying to help as I would be pissed if I spent 9k on something like this

[Quick5pnt0]

Did you pay by credit card? or cash?
If by credit card, call up your CC company and ask to have the payments stopped, and file a complaint against them. This isnt the first time i've heard bad things of them. A friend of mine went there and said they are "hacks".....personally i've never been there.

[MadMatt5oh]

I got tired of reading responses. Heres my take, they took advantage of you. Bluntly putting it It doesnt seem like you know very much about your car. You should sue those bastards because they saw you coming from a mile away before they charged you with the first huge bill.

You need o2s its a must. Your car has to maintain an AF ratio. You need a functioning smog pump, while your at it might as well get a 3" exhaust as well

Just my observation

[89MustangGX]

Don't worry about the smog pump -- it's not needed with the new style converters (thus why new cars don't have them). The O2's I question -- but I also know it wasn't uncommon to disconnect them back in the day on blower cars, I suppose some people still do.

I almost hate to say it, but I suspect some type of wiring issue or something that is probabkly impossible to test for and you'll only find by looking at every inch of wire or replacing more stuff. I dunno...sounds way too fishy...