Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Why not go find the temperatures at which sulfides of platinum, palladium, rhodium, and iridium revert to metal.
If you had hot hydrogen in there, I'd believe it. I don't for this. Doubt the reversible sulfide phase is present in enough quantity to do anything real.
Clogged with soot? Maybe. But I doubt that the lacquer thinner is doing much (does it burn at a slower rate than gas, and thus send more HCs to the converter)? Not sure how this really differs from an Italian tune up with a fuel dump that let's it run rich.
I'm guessing there could be something with the combination of methanol and acetone that either heats up the cat a bit more or causes deposits of carbon to volatilize...and yes I will be doing some Italian tune-ups over the course of the 150 miles or so...
The car is a 1998 Mercury Mystique (Ford Contour) with a 2.5L 25v V6 "baby" Duratech. The cat has been giving me varying problems since I've owned it, but "check engine light" usually stays off for several hundred to several thousand miles before throwing the code again. I cleaned out the air-intake manifold and combustion chamber and since the light has come back on after about 50 miles and 120 miles after being reset twice...