Ive used a full gallon of laq thinner w half tank. no problems. worked for me.

Very nice. I appreciate the effort that you have put into this. We have some older cars with high mileage (both are throwing P0420 right now) and I have used cataclean in one of them already. It seemed to work for a while, but SHOOT! I think I am going to run a gallon of lacquer thinner next. Maybe it will work better this time. Thanks again for posting all of the lacquer thinner vids!

Good video, and great job on the table with your data so we could clearly compare the results.

Thank you.

CAME ACROSS SITE LOOKING FOR EFFECT OF LAQUER THINNER ON A TURBO ENGINE! COULD'NT FIND IT BUT THIS IS NICE!

Good video and I’m going to use the Laquer Thinner in my vehicle. The odds are too good not to.

Just a thought but if the orings expand wouldn’t that make a better seal. Also per cataclean’s instructions you put it in at a 1/4 tank then only drive for about 10-15 miles before filling the tank which further dilutes the mixture. I’m having a 420 code on my 04 acura tl and am going to try cataclean for now.

Just tried the lacquer thinner gallon in my 04 Silverado 5.3 and I put the 1 gallon into about 20 gallons of gas (roughly 3/4 tank) because I was too impatient to bring it down to half a tank (roughly 13 gallons). After running the engine for 15 minutes it cleared all my codes and is running excellent, even at that 20:1 mixture and after watching your test I'm glad I didn't do the 13:1 mixture. Cool test, it's definitely meaningful to see the deterioration this can cause to rubber o rings and seals. To anyone with a check engine light on a car getting P0420 or P0430 codes with an average fuel tank smaller than 20 gallons, I'd highly recommend you do half of the recommended amount of lacquer thinner than typically recommended. Start with half a gallon of thinner in 8-10 gallons of gas and if it doesn't work, many people say you can do a 2nd and third treatment until the cats clean up.

Thanks a lot for your effort in producing this knowledge for us all. As 'ínformation' only, rubber O rings {like all rubber} is produced out of latex, carbon, sulfur - and other accelerators and retardants - pretty nuch as they manufacture a "cake"...each one has its OWN recipe! Then, mixed up in what they call a Bambury. Mhen mixed well, they "form" them via an injector or extrusion machine. Once formed, it is "cook" under temperature and pressure. The "curve" deployed at curing time is of most importance, because it "reads" for us, the special characteristic of elasticity and/or reliance to breakage. This is done on an instyrument called Rheometer. All rubber components give off oils and solvants used to dissperse the components during the mix, btw. I think that exposing the rubber briefly to some lacquer thinner, cleaning it afterwards off it, will not harm any part of the vehicle's system, if done fast. Thanks, again. ✔✔

It says on the bottle contains acetone that’s basically paint thinner

Hi,i have merc w211 2003 yr,what do u suggest to do when it comes to catalyst cleaning? Ty

Hi, i hv Honda Odyssey 2009 , it threw p0420 code, plz advise

I'm here to see if cataclean is just a 20 some dollar, 1/2 the size bottle of lacquer thinner

Thank you for listening to the comments. I just subscribed to your channel

Thanks for a well thought out and executed video. As someone with a science and engineering background I appreciate your approach. While strength as a metric of deterioration has some role, it seems to me that compressibility and resilience of the o-rings is more important in this application, so maybe you could look at that sometime. That said, among my cars is a 14 year old 140,000 mile Maxima. I did not have a cat code, but the convertors on those cars are known to clog up and fail. I didn't know about using lacquer thinner at the time, but purchased some cat cleaner snake oil at the local auto parts. Maybe it is just placebo effect, but I swear the exhaust sound became more open and the car is running better. Did I relieve excessive back pressure or is it just my imagination? To be clear, I would not use these products with any regularity (like maybe once every 140,000 miles) but nothing broke and I think it helped. Maybe six months from now it will all fall apart, we'll see. Since it worked so well on this car maybe I should try it on my Tesla? Just have to find the gas cap first. Thanks again for the video.

Interesting but wouldn’t you get a more accurate estimate if you mixed it at 32-1? And the o rings inside the engine would have some lubricant coating to?

I have an f150 Ecoboost 3.5L that likes to run rich so it would always kick off the check engine light. Not being a car guy, I thought I'd have to buy a new catalytic converter but researched other less expensive options. Lacquer thinner did the trick, but the light would come back on every other month or two. Though Cataclean might be safer so tried it and it works too. BUT it's so damn expensive that I'm going back to LT. Thanks for the video!!

Great video!

Can i run lt in a full tank of fuel and drive in city over a weeks time? Would like to just run as a preventive

Im not throwing codes, yet. When i hit over 3k rpms i get a smell in the car. Only smell it when the windows are down. Someone said it was dirty cats. I've run 2 bottles of cataclean and it seemed to help a little. Would the thinner be better?

Have you tried loosening the cat or header and pouring the lacquer thinner into it then close it up then drive it after a few hours of soaking?

I used cataclean on my Is250. The code would come on & off. Once I put the lacquer thinner, light never came on. I did 1/2 gal of gas & 1 gallon of lacquer

Hi, nice work. Has the Lacquer Thinner been independently tested to show it cannot harm any seals? I think Cataclean has?

Did you have any problems with the exhaust manifold cat converter breakup in the Altima? Assuming it's the 2.5L?

What is your point? Cataclean is great stuff. How else do you clean out a catalytic converter? Put a new one on because the P0420 code is coming up? Nope gonna try Cataclean again!! Works great !!!!

You could have used the CC to clean your paint guns. 🤭

What about diesel cars can we you thinner

I have used cataclean with Good results.

"PROJECT STANLEY" GO 'HEAD ON ! WITH YOUR BAD SELF!! NICE!!

Kalifornia Klean Strip formula : PROPANONE and GLYCOL ETHERS. 49 State formula :ACETONE,ETHYL ACETATE,METHANOL,PETROLEUM DISTILLATES and TOLUENE.I would be careful about using this in California. Maybe Scotty or another Car Tuber could test this? I"m in California

This is how Project Farm got started back in the day. Next thing you know, you'll be talking as fast as a speeding bullet and own so much stuff you'll need a 20k sf pole barn.

How are your cars? Still driving good?

been running my truck on pure lacquer thinner for years now ( lacquer thinner plant next to me give excess to me for free} no codes ever since going 100 percent thiner

Get it all in there im a cheap skate 😅

you could simply just measured them with the micrometer

Don't let the thinner sit for days burn that tank out whiting a day

If you fart in the spark plug hole it improves combustion ive found. Make sure to do all of em though.

My takeaway is not to use either one in my vette

Gas and anything put in the gas tank doesn't touch the fuel injector o rings so the test is pointless

Yes this is pointless, because the O-ring isn't emerge in liquid

I’m sorry but I put cataclean and my car run better I know the Not to put nothing in your gas tank but I need some cleaning done

EXPERIMENT #2 FAIL. Nobody soaks their O-rings in lacquer thinner or Cataclean before installing in the motor. The test has to be REAL LIFE situations. What are the directions on the can and how does that affect the rings? Lacquer thinner is put into gas and then driven till empty. It doesn’t take a week to drive 150 miles. Do these products affect rings within a couple of hours and do they deteriorate over time due to these products?

There is a better way to clean cats. That better way is just like it’s done with diesel fuel emissions systems. It’s illegal to tamper with our emissions systems. Drilling a small hole upstream of the cat. Then spraying carburetor cleaner directly into the cat while engine is running would also clean the cat. Dirty cats are the issue, how to clean them is the controversy. No one would disagree that there are better ways to clean cats. Until those better ways aren’t considered tampering or illegal. We are left with mixing lacquer thinner in the fuel tank. Removing the cat then cleaning it is the hardest way. The P420 is common, it’s a money maker. The lacquer thinner treatment doesn’t make any money for those in the replacement business. It’s almost like the industry pretends soot and grime shouldn’t happen in a gasoline cat, but it does. If it clogs up enough, you will blow out the internal material causing a catastrophic failure. Overheating of the cat is also contributed to soot. I don’t wait for the P420 I now run lacquer thinner around 15,000 mile intervals. My scanner tells me it works… My scanner also indicates the emissions system works better with overdrive off in city. Overdrive off in stop and go city driving will help in preventing soot buildup. Overdrive on while driving on interstate above 60mph if very fine indeed…

Ford parts better and Chevy all it proves