I put my car on ramps today, so I could look around under the car. The car was sitting all night so it was cold and I only ran the car long enough so I could line up the ramps and drive it on. As soon as I shut the car off I went under and felt the exhaust pipes before and after my cats, the pipes before my cats were very hot and the pipes after my cats were much cooler and I could hold on to them. I didn't even run the car long enough for the temp gauge to move. Do you think my cats could be partly clogged? They are the stock cats from 1989.

 

Hmm, could be, I'd say run the car longer at nite and check to see if the cat is glowing.

 

Mark what do u mean... The cat will glow if it is clogged or somthing. How else can u check if it is clogged. Mine is old. It is from 1985 and I am planning on doing exhaust mods so I want everything to be working 100%.

 

Resistance causes heat. When the cat starts to get clogged it doesn't breath as much as it should. Resistance. The other way to tell is the way it smells. From what I am told it smells like rotten eggs. Sulfer.

 

Mine did not smell or glow red, but I did lose .8 tenths in the 1/4 mile. The car still had good low end power just was dead on the top end. I would just replace the cat.

nick

 

89BlueTA

Do u have a 305 TPI or a 350 TPI.

 

I had a similar problem where my cat was clogged. I at one point had a leaky exhaust causing my car to make kinda a sick sound that I am sure many of you are familiar with. I then began to get back fires through my carb and I was wondering if it was from my leaks. It wasn't. My exhaust wasn't properly going through my cat causing much back pressure. This is what was causing my back fires. It also caused my spark plugs ot get real hot. This could be the reason why your exhaust is hotter before the cats than after the cats.

 

Considering that it's the original cat, I would go ahead and get a high flow cat (like one from catco). It probably needs replaced anyways, and it would help quite a bit in the performance department.