Requesting Help: Catalytic Converter Protection for the 4Runner

I watched a video on the MillerCat site that shows theirs being installed on a 2022 4Runner; the front mounts with a 'nut plate' that is installed separately between the engine skid plate and the cross member, with bolts through the cross member to nuts on the cat shield above. That necessitates removing the engine skid plate, as they do not share any bolts for mounting. That means if you needed to remove the cat shield, you'd have to remove the engine skid plate also. Not fun. I guess you could always use this nut plate to mark holes in the engine skid plate, and use that for mounting instead of the supplied plate - then it could be removed separately without messing with the engine skid.

 

Additional information on the install of the MillerCat offering: I see in post #19 where @Loco x Toyota installed this on his Limited, WITHOUT having to take off his RCI skid. That lower plate slid in between the cross member and the RCI skid, and the bolts could be threaded (carefully) up into the threaded nuts on the skid above. The OEM skid goes further back beyond the cross member, so that's why the video I watched said it has to be removed. I also have an RCI engine skid, so I'm probably going to order the MillerCat version, in the hopes that it also can be installed on mine without having to remove the front skid.

That also means the cat skid could be removed for maintenance without having to fool with the front skid.

 

Did you have any issues with installing the bolts they provide?

 

One more detail - I emailed MillerCat about the weight difference between the aluminum and stainless steel version - the response was about 5-6 lbs. difference.

 

the cat shield blocks the following maintenance items:

• front propeller shaft greasing (every 15k miles)
• transmission fluid change (every 60k miles)

Most people skip front propeller shaft greasing, so basically the cat shield needs to come off every 60k miles.

But you're supposed to change diff fluids every 30k miles, so in theory, the engine skid need to be removed more often than the cat shield

 

No I didn't have any issues, they provide the bits for the tamper proof bolts for each size. I think the hardest thing would be to install the long bolts and trying to line it up with the shield on the other side like in the pic below, but it wasn't difficult. Also recommend jacking up the car to do the install. I was lazy and didn't and took 45 minutes lol. I think once you know what needs to be done it will be faster to uninstall or reinstall when needed. They post the instructions online if you want to check it out

 

But you haven't mentioned what area you're from! It is a problem here in NYC. Where are you?

 

did you have any trouble getting the tamper screws into the shield/crossbar? I got them into the frame, but even with graphite/wd40, I couldn’t get them to thread through the shield, crossbar section easily. Don’t want to put too much force on them

 

I didn't have any issues with any of it. Are you talking about the cross bars on the sides? Maybe need some force to get the bolts through the shield. Might want to reach out to MillerCat to make sure there are no issues with bolts/shield

Here is a video of a install, doesn't look like he used any force to thread bolts in
https://youtu.be/BGxliuKCXaE