What the heck is this??

-
cudamark

cudamark

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
Messages
11,848
Reaction score
3,513
Location
San Diego
I was loading some scrap today and noticed a muffler with this inside. It's a metal mesh bag with tiny pellets inside and it's attached to the inner pipes with a couple of metal straps. Was it just a weird dessicant bag for moisture while being stored? Or like an anode rod in a hot water heater to keep rust away from the steel in the muffler? (if so, it did a miserable job!) Some worker in the muffler plant getting rid of his stash? What???
 

Attachments

  • 100_0702.jpg
    134.5 KB · Views: 461
reminds me of the ole urban legend about someone buying a car at auction that was confiscated from some drug kingpin then later finding the stash that the police missed...
 
i,m guessing its like a catalyst to burn fumes left in the mufflers so they dont pop when cranked again? but i really dont know
 
Crazy idea but maybe their scents (odors) that when heated produce an aroma of some kind that you can smell when parked or seep into the cabin while driving?
 
4spdragtop said:
One of the original catalytic converters
Click to expand...
I would think it's too small for that. I should have layed a measuring tape next to it but the bag is only about 1 1/4" X 2 1/2" in size. What you see in the photo is just the internal pipes....the outer metal shell is completely rusted away. I'm just curious as to what could be in that bag that would hold up to exhaust temps. I kinda like the fuel burning catalyst theory but what would make a muffler company go to the expense of making it unless it was a smog requirement. Wouldn't a car requiring that sort of thing have it incorporated into a catalytic convertor? This came off a pre-cat car where they had pretty simple smog requirements.
 
Do you still have it? If so you might want to verify what it is. If it is Platinum like used in catalytic converters it's worth quite a bit. Converters used to not be worth anything cause there wasn't a good way to extract the platinum. They figured out how to get it out and not converters are worth anywhere from $50-200 for scrap.
 
Headlight grease..I haven't seen that stuff since the 60's it was always placed next to the exhaust plugs on the shelves
 
chryslerfat said:
I would have to agree that this may be it. I know on diesels they started cayalyst mufflers back in the 90`s
Click to expand...
Would something this small really have much of an effect on emissions? I mean the total contents of the bag would fit in a good sized shot glass. NOX is usually the big issue with diesels. What kind of pellets would they use to reduce that?
 
At Airports we have something similar called Relative Bearing Grease. We usually store that right next to the Prop Wash!

JRDART said:
Headlight grease..I haven't seen that stuff since the 60's it was always placed next to the exhaust plugs on the shelves
Click to expand...
 
cudamark said:
Would something this small really have much of an effect on emissions? I mean the total contents of the bag would fit in a good sized shot glass. NOX is usually the big issue with diesels. What kind of pellets would they use to reduce that?
Click to expand...


Not 100% but the modern cat's have platinum and are worth $$$ as said above. Cat converters have been around since I believe late 60's or 70's. Depending on how old it is, who knows wtf it is. A cat nowadays is designed to increase exhaust temps for a more effecient burn. Back in the day, who knows...
 
cudamark said:
Would something this small really have much of an effect on emissions? I mean the total contents of the bag would fit in a good sized shot glass. NOX is usually the big issue with diesels. What kind of pellets would they use to reduce that?
Click to expand...

I highly doubt it would. I tore open one of the earliest cats and it was like a honeycomb inside so all of the gas passed through it. If all the gas doesn't pass through it there's no way it'll be affective.
 
I would guess it is Rat poison, someone was having issues with rodents getting in the car while being stored.
dodgedartCassiniranch007.jpg
 
It's a scrubbing material, composed of asbestos fibers or any other appropriate silicate material whose chemical make-up is such that it is characterized by high adsorption potential for polyaromatic hydrocarbons, is mixed with a small amount of clay and water, fashioned into small pellets by readily available technology, and dried at relatively low temperatures to afford the production of small solid pellets. This pelletized adsorbing material is used as the active scrubbing filler material in the core of an appropriately shaped container, which is affixed on the tail end of the exhaust systems of equipment and/or industrial processes known to generate fumes containing soot particles and noxious chemicals, such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides, etc.

The preferred adsorbing silicates are chrysotile asbestos (magnesium silicate) and attapulgite (aluminium and magnesium silicate). When mixed with a clay material such as bentonite or other similar cementitious material, and water, it is possible to shape the wet mixtures into small pellets, whose dimensions are such that they may be retained within a cartridge made up of a wire mesh. The cartridge filled with the pellets is contained inside an appropriately shaped metal container. This apparatus is affixed in such a way as to allow normal flow of the exhaust gases, and to afford the desired effect: trapping of soot particles, and adsorption of the noxious chemicals present in the exhaust gases.

Don't eat it.

-RPM
 
RPM said:
It's a scrubbing material, composed of asbestos fibers or any other appropriate silicate material whose chemical make-up is such that it is characterized by high adsorption potential for polyaromatic hydrocarbons, is mixed with a small amount of clay and water, fashioned into small pellets by readily available technology, and dried at relatively low temperatures to afford the production of small solid pellets. This pelletized adsorbing material is used as the active scrubbing filler material in the core of an appropriately shaped container, which is affixed on the tail end of the exhaust systems of equipment and/or industrial processes known to generate fumes containing soot particles and noxious chemicals, such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides, etc.

The preferred adsorbing silicates are chrysotile asbestos (magnesium silicate) and attapulgite (aluminium and magnesium silicate). When mixed with a clay material such as bentonite or other similar cementitious material, and water, it is possible to shape the wet mixtures into small pellets, whose dimensions are such that they may be retained within a cartridge made up of a wire mesh. The cartridge filled with the pellets is contained inside an appropriately shaped metal container. This apparatus is affixed in such a way as to allow normal flow of the exhaust gases, and to afford the desired effect: trapping of soot particles, and adsorption of the noxious chemicals present in the exhaust gases.

Don't eat it.

-RPM
Click to expand...
I knew someone would come along and explain it in simple laymans, terms:salute:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top