The stuff in your muffler is your cat coming apart.
When that happens, you lose power at higher RPMs when you are trying to push more air out of the exhaust.
If you drive like that, the temps will be higher but no damage should occur.
Some folks drive with the Cat completely hollowed out - which is illegal.  You will need to replace your cat in the near future.  Not too hard to do unless the bolts holding it are severly rusted.

Z

"Waldron, Evans" <evans.waldron@US.SCHOTT.COM> wrote:
Hi,
I have been lurking here for awhile but this is my first try at
sending a question to the list. Hope this works OK, I really get allot of
good advice from reading members comments. I have an 83.5 Westy with a 1.9
engine
A few weeks ago I was coming back from camping at Nickerson SP on
Cape Cod and I noticed a definite loss of power at high speed. The engine
did not miss or anything and at low speed seems OK. Have been driving
around town ad do not notice any problems.
This week I noticed that the muffler strap was broken and
eventually had to remove the muffler to get at it. When I did this I
noticed some hard honey comb type material stuck in the inlet end of the
muffler. Since I put in a new exhaust system about 2 years ago, I new it
had not been there before. I broke it out of the muffler with a
screwdriver and got most of it out with some pieces still rattling around
inside. Inside of the CAT was empty except for some screening which
looked about half way in. I assume that the honeycomb material came from
the CAT.
My question to the list are:
1 Could my loss of power be related to the clog in the muffler?
2 Could I have done any damage to the engine driving about 3 hours
on the highway?
3 Will I be doing any damage if I drive with the CAT empty?

Any other comments will be welcome

Evans Waldron
83.5 Westy
Charlton, MA

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