I have seen some cats that have lost their guts through the exhaust but the
engines were still running fine with the 02 sensor online.
I have also seen many 02 sensors installed in exhaust pipes, so they are not
in the exhaust manifold nor cat.

Just try yours and see. ;-)

"Rex B" > wrote in message
...
> dave AKA vwdoc1 wrote:
>> "Rex B" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>>>Your 02 sensor should be a heated one and come online within a few
>>>>minutes
>>>>of the engine running.
>>>
>>>So the internal heater should be able to get the sensor into the working
>>>range, without benefit of a blast of exhaust heat?
>>
>>
>> yes at least initially, but exhaust should be hitting even with a gutted
>> cat.
>> I am not totally sure on this since I only deal with 'working' & complete
>> cats. <g>
>
> How dull
> Actually, the O2 sensor on this car (and I assume other Mk2s) is placed in
> the shell of the convertor. The bung is in the angled taper (the lower \
> in the ascii art below) section such that it sits outside of the main
> flow, angled back toward the catalyst core. In that position I expect it
> would get a good portion of the heat as radiant from the hot core. That
> core is gone, the exhaust flow alone is not optimal from a heat
> standpoint.
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