The catalytic converter on my trans am is no good. If I drive it or even just let it idle a bit, it starts smoking and the smoke comes up through the passenger side around the engine. I drove it a while ago and it was glowing like someone put a torch to it. Also I have crappy acceleration.

I found a magnaflow cat on autozone website that says its a direct fit http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...35_64164_2149_.

I have the 89 service manual and it doesn't seem that hard to replace it, If it's the stock cat, would I be able to do it with just a jack and jacks stands or maybe on ramps? . I'm pretty sure the cat it has now is stock so If I'm not mistaken the new one should bolt right up

There was also another cheaper one, http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...2_180862_2149_

 

Are you sure your timing is not off and you're not getting fuel dumped into the car?
Lets just hope its a lot of back pressure.

The direct fit bolt ons are fairly easy. There will be two bolts or the clamp (like the pipe to the exhaust manifold) and two bolts for the bracket off the torque arm mount.
Up front will be a bit harder. Its a slip fit and when they clamp it with that u-bolt clamp it dimples it. If you have some way to cut slots lenghtwise in your old cat it will allow you to spread the old cat's pipe open to get it off you exhaust.

 

I don't think its the fuel since it smoked with the old carb, I just recently put a holley on it. I'll check the timing and see where its at in the morning, If its ok I think I'll go to autozone and buy the cat. I noticed that when I start it up white smoke comes out from around the passenger side near the exhaust manifold but I can't really tell where its coming from

 

Maybe you need the donuts between the y-pipe and manifolds. Does it make a ticking sound? If so that could be an exhaust leak.
Maybe you do have a plugged cat and the exhaust needs somehwere to go so it blew out a gasket!
But be careful driving with that red hot cat. The exhaust is bad enough not getting red hot in these low to the ground cars. Don't park over anything flamable.

 

that's what I'm thinking, I'm not sure what gasket could have blown though. The exhaust has this smell, I've read around and it seems bad cats have a sulfur smell, I don't know what sulfur smells like but the exhaust does have a weird . Also a while back the start up smoke smelled kinda like what a flint smells like when you strike it not sure why though.

 

Matches smell like sulfar! Rotten egg smell I guess but I never smelled rotten eggs. New cats stuck as well BTW so don't panic when you smell something right after its installed.
But if you follow the pipe from the cat to the motor on each side where it meets the exhaust manifold there will be exhaust donuts in there. Maybe the smoke comes from there. But it would also be noisy and exhaust leaks usually make a ticking sound

 

Yup rotten egg smell. Its not terrilbe but you will smell it. You can always undo the pipe in front of the cat and see if that problem goes away. will give you more insight to whether the cat is plugged or what not.

 

I just hit a road block, it seems there's been exhaust work and they replaced the pipe from the muffler to the cat and welded them together. I guess I'll have to take it to a shop

 

I called around to check prices and the best I found was about 120-130 installed (which is about 10 miles away). I aslo called the shop I trust and they quoted about $140 installed , I called midas since its the closest and they at first said about $189 I told the guy that was too much and he dropped the price to $149 with 2 year warranty. I don't really trust places like midas but for 150 it doesnt seem like a bad price

 

I paid $175 or so for one installed in the past. Look at the prices of cats and its really not bad to pay $150 or so installed.

 

I went to midas just and the guy told me I was running too rich and that I should fix that before I get a new cat. I just got a new holley 600 cfm and I think I had it very rich, the idle mixture screws were way out so I turned them all the way in until the rpm was about 200 or 300 then I turned them out until it got to about 600 rpm. I hope I did it right though.

I also checked the timing and it seems pretty good. I'm going to replace the wires along with cap and rotor in the morning, I hope that helps. The cap has some rust on the tip

 

Converters have a 5 year warranty on a good running vehicle. it's the law. Well in california it is anyway.

 

Vehicle is modified, not good running since its rich and the OP is in Texas

 

So in that case thier is no warranty at all..damn!

 

I replaced the plugs, wire, cap, and rotor today. The old cap had some rust and a few wires had rust too. When I started the car , it got up to about 1500 rpm by itself and kept dying when I revved it. I kept giving it some gas so it wouldn't die until the damn thing back fired from the carb. It even pushed up the air cleaner since I didn't have the nut on it, it also blew out the brake booster hose. After letting it run for a bit, it seemed good. The idle is about 1k right now and timing around 8* btdc. the rpm at idle moves a line or two up and down and when I put it in park or drive it drops to about 500-600.

I think I tuned the Holley correctly but the idle isn't normal