Hey all. Just tonight I pulled into the garage after a highway drive and maybe 3 minutes of WOT spirited driving. I noticed a buring smell, like rubber a bit. NOT EXACTLY SURE.

I took a look at some different parts of the car and noticed my catalytic converter was glowing red hot. Im running Bryans V2.7 93 OCt. boost pill map. I dont think im running to rich, which could be a catalytic conveter problem.

Any ideas or other people who have noticed or faced this issue?

 

i've noticed a burning rubber smell after giving it a good thrashing but I assumed it was my tires, never thought to look at the cat. I am going to do some 1/4 mile runs this fri and I will take a look then.

Of course, we could just remove our cats and not worry at all

 

Ture, lol. But as im researching now the probable causes of this issue and i wanna make sure my car in need of new spark plugs, spark wires ect. There are several reasons this could happen.

One issue would be the car is running to "rich". So im wondering if i get the cat checked our or not (spending $).

 

Time to upgrade the exhaust :P

 

No - we need to understand why (or if) it is going pig-rich at WOT (esp. since so many people were data logging the beta version...)

Is there excessive soot on the tailpipe too?

 

Wideband it and see how it is running. Then you can tell if its lean or rich.

 

Unburnt fuel is burning in the cat.
Several things can cause this. Way too retarded timing, Excessively rich or stuck or not sealed valves.

 

Exactly it can be several things. I have an appointment next week with a local tuner to make sure the car is running nice and smooth.

I would like to point out that the car has not lost any power and there was alot of abnormal clicking coming from the exhaust (cat). Thats the reason why i decided to check it out.

I have the V2.7 tune which should lean my system out a tad. I did have a UR catback for a year (now off the car) and during that time a lot of rich smoke came out fo the exhaust on WOT. I could possibly have a build up in the cat?

Im just wondering if this is normal? .... prior to checking this I was on the highway for 22km ( just cruising), and about 4 mintues of spirited WOT driving.

Im going to drive tonight again (takin it easy) and see if the same issue occurs.

 

Nothing above average in terms of tailpipe soot.

 

Stuck open injector?

 

Hey ArtofRalli,

Just so you know, im in the same boat as you are. I always noticed the click click click after getting out of the car after any type of drive and it was up to temp, but once i saw this thread it made me check and i noticed the red glow.

Now Im running the 2.7 GST Basemap 93 Oct w/ Boostpill. And i have noticed some black soot at the bottom half of the mufflers.

I do wish to resolve this as this is a meaning of an issue. But sadly my laptop crapped out on me a couple of days ago so i have to wait to send it in for warranty work. So that means i cant take out the Boostpill and revert to stock flash to test if it is a issue with the basemap.

As im going through a sticky financial situation (missed quite a bit of work over the past month due to personal issues) i cant afford a WB or even evoscan ATM.

So i am kind of stuck with getting this figured out/fixed. Im going to be driving as little as possible till you get an idea what this is or i get the finances to do it myself.

Luck be with you!

 

Part of our track driving briefing usually includes advice to NEVER stop off-course on the few grassy areas around. The cat can set the vegetation alight, and then things get very exciting. And we only do 1:30 to 2:00 minute runs - it's not like we lap for ages.

It'll be interesting to see how this progresses! Keen to see if it's a blocked cat or something...

Rich

 

Well I forgot to mention this earlier, but I plan on putting on my IC setup this weekend. While I'm under the car I can try to take off the cat and see if there's anything going on in it.

Anything specific I should look for? am I supposed to be able to see through it when looking at the sun?

 

I'd suggest leaving it totally alone. It's quite possible you're seeing something that's perfectly normal.

Go have a read of the online articles about cat operation, temperature range, etc. It's quite an astounding bit of hardware when you get into it. Starts working around 280C, operates up around 850C!

We've got a heavy car that needs lots of torque to move... our t/c works its socks off, and the mixture is pretty rich to increase in-cylinder cooling. Plus, don't forget the MIVEC tuning capabilities, which I understand can allow some blow-by of unburnt fuel if there is overlap (warning: me no tuner). The cat has to clean all that up, and it gets hot doing it.

I've got one of those heat sensor gun things, so I can measure the external cat temp quite easily. Surprised I haven't thought of it until now - I've pointed it at just about everything else on the car.

Yeah, this is going to be an interesting thread... I can tell.

Rich

 

I was just talking tuning stuff over with Bryan, and we chatted about this issue. We'll be trying out some revised MIVEC ExVVT tuning.

Well, I say "we". What I mean is, he'll do the tuning, and I'll be the monkey test-driving and logging it.

If we can reduce the intake/exhaust overlap a bit (preferably without compromising the peppy feel of the tune), it could send less nasty gases on for the cat to deal with... making it run cooler...

...or something. lol

Rich