Acidic samples of Y zeolite were prepared by ion exchange promoted using microwave irradiation. Interesting exchange levels were obtained with only a few minutes of irradiation. The catalytic properties of these samples were evaluated using the transformation of iso-octane; the observed conversions lie in the same range as those for the samples prepared by the conventional ion-exchange method of stirring the mixture of the sodium form with an ammonium salt solution for several hours; the deactivation with time-on-stream was significantly reduced for the catalysts prepared by the irradiation method in the cases of highest activity.