Took the CVC for its first drive.. round the roundabout at the top of our road.

Came back with a rattle from the RH catalaytic converter. As it is early I presume it is a non cat and it's just the box and some baffles there. I'm reluctant to spend £1200 plus the aggravation of removing the gearbox cross member etc for a replacement part.

Has anyone cut out the cat section and opened it up to sort out the baffle? I'dlike to keep it original looking under there.

I've heard of people cutting cats to remove the stuff but never to fix it the honey comb ceramic or whatever it is breaks and turns blocking the exhaust ---- had Mondeo do that ---- only thing I can suggest is either replacement via breakers or de- cat which only causes more issues at MOT test

It will have had cats from new so removing them is an automatic MoT fail. Is the Y piece all one unit or does it have joins behind the cats? My original one had joins so I could remove them at the join and at the manifold and gut the cats. However, as I;m running on LPG they aren't needed for the emissions anyway. I have heard of people stopping a rattle by squeezing the cat body with a big G clamp to hold the innards secure.

It's the all in one Richard so a real palaver to change never mind the expense. The parts book refers to non cat exhausts - ESR3042 and3701 for UK use and the picture shows the expanded area. The G clamp idea is novel.

But have you seen the price!!!! Over a grand. Allbrit lists both those part numbers as non-cat systems for the Australian market where they didn't have cats until later (Thor I think). Non-cat downpipes don't have holes for the lambda sensors either and it's doubtful it will meet the emissions requirements for the MoT.

I fitted one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/range-rover-p38-exhaust-system-p38-V8-exhaust-system-complete-front-rear-94-99/272214722398 and while dropping the crossmember makes it a slightly more lengthy process, wasn't that difficult. Makes just buying the Y piece and cats on their own seem expensive https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/range-rover-p38-catalytic-converter-p38-v8-downpipes-with-cats-wcd000860-99-my/252021472328.

You don't leave the G clamp in place, although I suppose you could, you squash the box so the cat stops rattling.

If you haven't already tried it, some high revs can be enough to clear loose bits out of the y pipe to stop rattling. I had the same after having a coil pack go, stuck it in 2 and took it onto the local dual carriageway for a few miles. No more rattling after that!

Thanks Brian and Richard.

I'll try the G clamp as the easiest option. I'll try the high revs as the next option. The Maltings prices look a lot more acceptable. It does have holes for Lambda sensors so it must be a cat spec.

Happy days (the first drive, that is...)

pics?

Took the CVC for its first MOT since the rebuild.

The emissions test was a fail so have ordered a Y pipe from Maltings. Thanks for the info Richard.

The other odd thing was that I had travel five miles in low range because it wouldn't accept that the gearlever was in neutral. Went through the process of clutch down press the button. "Select neutral" message. Nothing obviously detached in terms of wiring.
Is there a neutral sensor somewhere on a manual box?

From the ETM:

A shift between ranges is possible when the
transmission is in neutral. The Transmission
Gearbox Control Unit (Z256) senses this via a
Park/Neutral Switch (X308) on automatic
transmission vehicles and via either a clutch switch
or a lever neutral switch on manual transmission
vehicles.

That suggests you should have either a neutral switch under the centre console, or on the gearbox itself, or a switch on the clutch. If the latter, you'd need to have the clutch pedal pushed down to change range.

Thanks Richard,

there is a switch on the remote housing. UMB100050 but not exactly accesible. Will wait until it cools down a bit and have a closer look.

Had another look at RAVE. Seems there may be two switches on the side of the gearbox, one is the reverse switch while the other is a neutral switch. Of course with yours being very early it may be done a different way.

Before I got too burnt I did find two switches. During the MOT the reverse light worked so that one is OK.

The lads in the MOT station were very complimentary which was nice as they are usually a pretty sanguine lot!

The new Y piece has arrived with warnings to check why the old one failed. The old one was the original so hadn't done badly but I checked all the plugs in case there was something else and the left bank were a bit more sooty than the right bank. Not sure how one could change that. It wasn't too bad just on the outer of the plug. The centre was pale brown.
The Lambda sensor was quite sooty on that side too.

20 years is probably the reason, though the P38 Cats seem to be better than most.

The rattling mentioned further back suggests the honeycomb had started to break up. Thats usually down to either misfire damage or too high temperatures from lean running, or striking the cat (possible with off road use I'd guess?). The cats are that far back in the exhaust I'd doubt it would be lean running, more likely misfires due to a failed coil pack or other ignition issue. Given you've rebuilt the engine I'd imagine you've addressed the original issue if it was anything more than just age related.