Well I noticed alot of little things going on with the car after the install. But the most irritating is the fact that at idle the car seems alright, but when run about 1500 rpm she starts to emit smoke and the catalytic converter inlet and outlet pipes start glowing. I am wondering what could be causing this. Also I noticed that if I just tap the gas, the car smoothes out, runs at about 1k for maybe a few seconds, then goes back down to around 600-650rpm. Just wondering what is going on. I am running hedman smog legal shorties with matching y, jethot coated, to a 3" catco with 3" force II system. The only other thing I did was replace the cap and rotor as well as plugs and some slp runners. I did not remove the distributer and have not touched the timing before or after install. Has anyone had a similar experience? I am not currently driving the car as I don't want to make anything worse. I am going to try and have a custom chip burnt. Does anyone out there have a spare chip for a maf car, just headers and catback? Anything that will maybe let me drive it around? thanks fellas

Will

 

sound like you got a clogged cat. prolly from the install. You most likely had a lot of rust n stuff that plugged it up.

 

Lots of time after a header install, the most common problem is a leak. Check over everything that was off the engine and put back on.

But it could also be a clogged cat as suggested above.

 

i remember my dads oldsmodbile had a clogged cat once and it was horrible. its amazing how much power you lose with a clogged cat

 

The cat is brand new. as well as the catback and the headers. Whats going on here guys? Do these things have a burn in period or what>

Will

 

Vacuum leak from runner install?

That would make it lean out, or something else not connected or pinched/broken lines? Like the EGR one that are fragile inder the intake?

Kill the 02 sensor with silicone on the install?

Any header leak ahead of the 02 sensor or very near it will also cause lots of problems as it sees too much air at the 02

later
Jeremy

 

I've heard the coated headers sometimes allow the o2 sensor not to get a good ground has anyone experienced this

 

So I went around and checked that all the injectors were seated properly. double checked the headeer bolts, she is leaking just a little exhaust right before the cat, but I will take care of that. The car is not smoking anymore. But once shes warm, the motor feels like it struggles to react when I give it gas. Any ideas

Will

 

also there was a seperate bung welded onto the pass side header , I relocated the sensor there. It itself is not coated, so I think it should get a decent ground. Any other ideas fellas?

Will

 

Did you install a new O2 sensor, or are you running the original? Either way, it could be/gone bad because of you're header install. Sounds like ECM is getting a faulty reading...


Did you disconnect the battery when you replaced the plugs and wires? It's funny though, the same thing happened to me once when I changed my plugs (turned out that their gap was off, but this might not be the case with you though).


It honestly sounds like a bad reading, or faulty sensor...

I doubt it's the chip, especially if you didn't touch the cam, and you're running MAF...

No codes are being thrown?

 

I'm not sure about our cars, as I never relocated my O2 sensor on the passenger side.... but I'm pretty sure when you re-locate the O2 sensor on the TBI cars, it causes headaches.

Try putting the O2 sensor back on the driver's side, just out of curiousity, of course.

 

Also - are you still running the factory one wire O2 sensor? If so, headers breath so much better that the O2 sensor "cools off" and it could be the car is not going into closed loop. A three wire sensor conversion is an easy fix to that.

I'd also check my connections if the harness was extended to reach the passenger side.....

 

Yes it is a new o2 sensor, and I cannot move it back to the pass side because the headers I got from jethot had the bung facing forward on the driver side. A bung was put in on the pass die rear collector for the use of a wideband o2 someday, but I figured why drill my headers anymore, and I just used this one. I will look into the 3 wire conversion, what all is involved.>

as far as codes, it did throw one, but it corrected itself. So I will look into the fault histroy to check it out. Yes the battery was disconnected for a good week while I did all the installs and I checked and double checked the gap. Thanks for all thehelp fellas, keep the ideas comin. I really want to get this thing figured out

Will