> I'm not sure you could heat the cat enough to melt it.
> If you could, I think gravity would settle it to the bottom

oh, most definitely you CAN cause the cat to "melt down" ... now, it does
NOT look "melted", but it breaks up and falls apart and will definitely clog
the exhaust. my brother just finished replacing his cat on the Jetta. the
stuff inside looks like a honey-comb (but with square holes, instead of
hexangonl holes), and the holes are VERY tiny ... like only 2mm on a side.
and there are LOTS of holes. anyway, the stuff is pretty long, and what
seems to happen is that the stuff breaks in two (or four or eight or more)
pieces and some of the pieces bounce around til  they are sideways, blocking
the flow. so it's not really "melted" like you'd think ... not like into a
puddle or something ... but it's useless after this happens, and all you can
do is take it off and either punch out the contents (leaving a straight pipe
with nothing inside) or replace the thing.

IF you deal with this stuff, i'm advised to NOT touch the stuff with your
bare skin ...not sure exactly why, but it is supposedly rather toxic, as in
poisonous. not sure i believe it, but better safe than sorry.

joel