Can Cat Converters be cleaned

[LCOX]

I posted a thread yesterday concerning possibly removing or hollowing out a clogged up cat converter. Got some good responses.

Can these cat converters be cleaned out effectively? Ive seen posts on you tube for several home made cleaning solutions but nothing that looks like it really cleans them

Removed from the car I can't shine a light through it and see it on the opposite end.

[darrin]

what leads you to conclude yours is clogged?

[991gts6s]

A Good ol' Italian tune up will do the same too

[josephvman]

If it’s going to be hollow why not just install a cat bypass pipe?

[smadsen]

A cat can become clogged by running leaded gasoline or many incompatible gasoline additives. However, more likely a 30 year old cat, or say a 150,000 mile+ cat, will fail because the precious metals that were coated to the ceramic "brick" inside has been burned off or de-graded to the point where the chemical conversion no longer takes place inside the "can." The heat that causes the chemical conversion will preclude any "rinse" that I know of to clean and renew a used up catalytic converter. It will just cease to convert.