jbird

Well guys, thanks for all the help. It looks like the problem is foundMPG recently on the highway has been between 23-25. The air filter was just put in today. I checked some more for burnt wires and put the one plug back in. I took the car out and beat on it for a while and it just got worse and worse. Then it started running warm. Not hot, but warmer than normal. So I beat on it some more and parked in a dark lot and opened the hood, sure enough, cherry red exhaust manifolds. Looks like a clogged cat. Now I've just got to find someone sort of shady around here to weld a pipe in its place. Thanks again fellas. I'll try to keep you all updated.

cjmatt

well if you get down there and can get a sawzall or sumthin to cut the cat off( at least here in michigan), any shop can weld in a new pipe for ya, they just cant remove the cat, but lets say it "fell off" on the way to the shop, then they wont care

sleeperMULLET

thats great news, i have a set of rksport headers thats were on my car when i first bought it, all you need is the y pipe with the cat on it from rksport, i could even help you install them since we are in the same town.

HardcoreRM125

Hey you guys are both from near where I live. Im from Baldwin if either of you are familiar with that area. Where is that track at ?

As for the clogged up cat: If you dont have the money right now, try this:

We did this on my dads F150 once,

Drill a hole in the cat, and jam a piece of Rebar in there. Break everything up as best as you can. Suck out as much of it as you possibly can throug the hole with a shop vac. Do this a few times till you break the whole thing apart and suck out as much as you can. Now tap the hole you drilled, and plug it with a plug that has pipe threads ( Tappered ) Start it up and run it hard for a little while. This blew **** EVERYWHERE out of my dads truck. And it never sounded different. So it wont kill your exhaust tone. Suprisingly, he passed emissions like that lol.

If you have the tools and stuff, pull the Y pipe and break the stuff out from the big opening where the cat back bolts on. I don't know any local shops that would do that for you, straight piping it, I mean. Sorry

Good Luck with everything.

PM me if you guys go back to that track, and let me know where its at lol

kick Z tail out

At least you found your problem. Picking up 2 seconds in the quarter is going to feel like you just slapped on a blower when you get it back out there

jbird

I know, I can't wait to run it again once it's running right. You guys have been more than helpful. This message board and its members are great.

Oh, and the track from pittsburg is way out 22E, almost to blairsville. I think their website is www.pittsburghracewaypark.com You'll have to come down and play some time. There are a lot of cars there, and it's a pretty nice track.


And sleeperMULLET, I sent you a pm.

robb4964

You need to figure out why its running so rich. Is the guy who tuned your car a credible tuner? I have never hear of him. But I can tell you I know more then one guy who had their car tuned bye a local LT1 wanna be tuner and Im not naming names but they lost time in the quarter and one of them had his cats clog within a month. Not saying thats the problem but something is Melting that Cat and making it hot. Cats dont fail under proper operation.

jbird

Well, the cat was rattling pretty bad before the tune, but I didn't have a place to work on it so I had to wait until spring break from school to drive it down to SC and check it out. By the time I was down there it had quit, and I really didn't think much of it. The car had also been smelling pig rich. The fellow is a pretty decent tuner, and he didn't really do anything major in the tune, he actually leaned it out a bit.

The heat shield on the cat is kind of beat up like I drug it on something, I don't know, considering the bumpiness of the roads and driveways around here if I have or not, I don't remember it, but that isn't saying much. That and most of my trips around here are pretty short, like 3-5 miles max, and as cold as it has been, I don't think the car much gets out of PE mode. Usually the temp needle on the dash is just starting to move, not quite at 160, when I'm pulling into school and places like that.

I really don't think the tune is at fault. It would be my first suspect other than the afforementioned items. Apologies for not disclosing all of them earlier.

MeanGreen97Z

You can get an slp off road y pipe. It has no cat and will help flow out. It costs around 120$. Good luck.

jbird

Thanks for the tip. My friend Nick is bringing his welder down, so I'll have the means to work on it. I'm not really sure what to do with it yet, but hopefully I'll have it taken care of within the next few days, I really don't want to drive the car around much like it sits.

Once again, thanks for all the help guys, and I'll try to keep y'all updated.

MeanGreen97Z

Actually its best that you dont drive it like that. It will leave you stranded if it clogs completely and can cause some serious damage.

RedRyder518

If you are running rich, go on and check your fuel pressure. My car had been running extremely rich and didn't pull hard even with my tune, but when I checked the pressure, it was at 64 psi with the vaccum line removed!! I turned it down to 42.5 psi and I picked up 2 mph at the track. It's worth a shot.

jbird

Update: I cut the cat off today. The stuff inside on the half that goes to the catback looked really clean, it was easy to see through, but was crushed into about 12 big pieces and lots of dust and stuff. The front half of the inside of the cat wasn't damaged, but I couldn't see light through it, and it looked like it had some dust/little pieces of the back half of the cat clogging it.

Well, I was going to replace it with pipe, but no one around here has any 3", so the shop that's doing it ordered some, and also a cutout. So until tomorrow I'll be open y-pipe, but I probably won't be driving 10 miles total until then. Hopefully the noise police won't get their panties in a wad. The car feels a LOT stronger. Kick Z Tail Out was right when he said it'd feel like the car had a blower. It seems to have lost some low-end torque, But I figure that's obviously going to be the case through and open Y.

I plan to buy the headers off of sleepermullet, I don't know when I'll get them on the car, it may be a month or two or three, but at least now I won't have to dread buying headers, so once I have a pair I'll be a lot more excited to get them on the car. More updates should come within the next few days if anyone is interested, and thanks again for all of your help.

turbo_Z

I didnt think that pipe was 3" but good thing you found your problem.

kick Z tail out

Right on!