the reason i ask is because, tonight i was driving sorta hard and when i stopped and opened the hood the cat was glowing, along with a bolt on the alternator. i have searched and enocounter 2 possibilitys, 1 timing is f'd and 2 cat might be plugged. lately i have noticed: 1. slight rattle/deisel sound while running engine, but you have to listen very closely and a couple people i ask didnt hear it, but some did. 2. VERY poor gas mileage, im in the process of calculating my MPG, just have to fill up tomorrow, but when i filled up tonight and drove 60 miles i was at 3/4 a tank(i know this is no good for guessing MPG), and even if the gas guage is a estimate, its got to be fairly close. 3. weird exhaust problems... like when the car is first started in the morning, i can barley feel the exhaust coming out the tail pipe, and there is no smoke or condensation, but after its warm it is much stronger, there is condensation on the muffler tip, and there is a off & on rattling coming from inside the pipe, or atleast thats how it sounds. i was considering the two, and thought about this question. i would think that if the timing was off, there would be a CEL. but seeing as i dont know that much about these 2 issues, i thought i ask your opinion. especally yours wes(cause i KNEW somthing wasnt right )
EDIT: forgot to add: ive noticed the last couple days that when i stop and turn off the car... ~30 secs - 1 1/2 mins after turning the car off there is a (boing) noise, it almost sounds like a cable loosing, or a spring being let go. almost like a guitar string being plucked
EDIT #2: also noticed that the brand new spark plug wires were grounding out on engine(blue sparks @night) dunno if its realted....
Last edited by makaveli : Nov 22nd, 2005 at 03:05 AM.
First read post 7 as i answer most of your questions. Secondly, you will know if your cat is plugged cuz it smells like rotten eggs and you dont have that smell and you are just over thinking this. Secondly, the only thing that will rattle is a loose heat shield or maybe the upper timing tensioner, but that would sound more like scrapping not a diesel.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hendrix
I can't wait until Hurrican Jamal sweeps up the east coast and steals the wheels and stero out of your car
id locate your cat and when it is cool, try and tap it with a hammer and see if you hear the rattling noise. it could be a clogged cat. it could be busted up and at some point lodged so you dont have exhaust flow as you should. i would guess only old age would or high mileage would cause the honeycomb catalyst to fall apart. you also might notice no get up and go when it is in the morning and clogged, as you might have already noticed. and the misfire from the plugwires could have caused the cat getting clogged. a bunch of hc's in your hot exhaust will clog and kill a cat in a heartbeat.....
Last edited by bigern45 : Nov 22nd, 2005 at 11:00 AM.
id locate your cat and when it is cool, try and tap it with a hammer and see if you hear the rattling noise. it could be a clogged cat. it could be busted up and at some point lodged so you dont have exhaust flow as you should. i would guess only old age would or high mileage would cause the honeycomb catalyst to fall apart. you also might notice no get up and go when it is in the morning and clogged, as you might have already noticed. and the misfire from the plugwires could have caused the cat getting clogged. a bunch of hc's in your hot exhaust will clog and kill a cat in a heartbeat.....
clogged cats have distinctive characteristics, nothing of which he has discribed. Clogged/blow cats have a distinctive smell of sulfar or rotten eggs. and its not going to be as easy as our cat is in our stock manifold. He is over thinking it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hendrix
I can't wait until Hurrican Jamal sweeps up the east coast and steals the wheels and stero out of your car
clogged cats have distinctive characteristics, nothing of which he has discribed. Clogged/blow cats have a distinctive smell of sulfar or rotten eggs. and its not going to be as easy as our cat is in our stock manifold. He is over thinking it.
if im over thinking it, why would the cat be glowing red at night????
you think im seeing shit??
id locate your cat and when it is cool, try and tap it with a hammer and see if you hear the rattling noise. it could be a clogged cat. it could be busted up and at some point lodged so you dont have exhaust flow as you should. i would guess only old age would or high mileage would cause the honeycomb catalyst to fall apart. you also might notice no get up and go when it is in the morning and clogged, as you might have already noticed. and the misfire from the plugwires could have caused the cat getting clogged. a bunch of hc's in your hot exhaust will clog and kill a cat in a heartbeat.....
well i was under it looking at the exhaust and i swaer i heard a dripping but im probably OVER THINKING IT
if im over thinking it, why would the cat be glowing red at night????
you think im seeing shit??
When you run cars hard, you create more heat, which doesn't disapate easily on stock compenents. its the same thing on brakes. You swear there are like 80 different problems with your car, but you imagine this. If its not broke, and its not, dont fix it. You are worrying too much bout this.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hendrix
I can't wait until Hurrican Jamal sweeps up the east coast and steals the wheels and stero out of your car
If the car is being driven hard I have heard of the cat glowing before on a stock car. I wold say it is fairly normal and others have reported the same thing.
Have you ever adjusted the timing? My guess is no because I know you do not own a timing light. My guess is the timing is OK, if the timing was too advanced the car would detonate and cause much larger porblems than a glowing cat. Timing will not cause a CEL unless the car is knocking in which case the knock sensor will throw a CEL.
If the cat was clogged my guess is that you would notice some of the symptoms that PSU suggested, sulfur smell, car would be SUPER sluggish and would run like general crap because the cat is so close to the head in your case.
The dripping sound you hear underneath is the oil dripping off the crank and hitting the baffle in the oil pan, the cat and heat shields will also make noise on cool down, this is normal.
I would certainly verify the timing using a light (hey your gonna have to figure that out on your own), and I would get rid of those spark plug wires pretty quick, replace them with OEM Nissan wires and make sure you are using OEM NGK plugs. If you are using anything less then you SHOULD replace them right away. Without doing the diagnosis yourself you will not get any REAL answers to your questions, just a bunch of people guessing at what the issue is.
...I would certainly verify the timing using a light (hey your gonna have to figure that out on your own), and I would get rid of those spark plug wires pretty quick, replace them with OEM Nissan wires and make sure you are using OEM NGK plugs. If you are using anything less then you SHOULD replace them right away. Without doing the diagnosis yourself you will not get any REAL answers to your questions, just a bunch of people guessing at what the issue is.
well i got a timing light today, and when i checked it(using hanynes manual step by step), it was at 10*, but the weird thing, and i dunno if this is normal, was that the light would strobe, and most of the time i could see the marks, but sometimes i could NOT see the marks on the pulley AT ALL. this might be normal, like i said im sorta new to checking timing. also the spark plug wires were brand new, i exchanged them earlier b/c the orginals would not seal over the plugs. the sparks i was seeing seemed like they were coming from inside the wire, that is, a section of the wire(1-2 inches) would be pulsating with a internal blue glow, while the rest of the wire stayed dark...
sorry if im annoying you guys, im not trying to be annoying
EDIT: On a side note, you guys dont think i need to replace the cat... do you? cause i was getting a hotshot header for x-mas, but if i dont need to replace it i might ask for somthing else....
Last edited by makaveli : Nov 22nd, 2005 at 08:28 PM.
If the car is being driven hard I have heard of the cat glowing before on a stock car. I wold say it is fairly normal and others have reported the same thing.
Mine was glowing when the engine scattered. All I had was a short ram intake.
quote=makaveli]
EDIT: On a side note, you guys dont think i need to replace the cat... do you? cause i was getting a hotshot header for x-mas, but if i dont need to replace it i might ask for somthing else....[/quote]
Get the hotshot weither or not you need a new cat or not Unless your just wanting to stay stock.
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Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Ben Franklin
Last edited by xbrandonx : Nov 22nd, 2005 at 08:45 PM.
well i got a timing light today, and when i checked it(using hanynes manual step by step), it was at 10*, but the weird thing, and i dunno if this is normal, was that the light would strobe, and most of the time i could see the marks, but sometimes i could NOT see the marks on the pulley AT ALL. this might be normal, like i said im sorta new to checking timing. also the spark plug wires were brand new, i exchanged them earlier b/c the orginals would not seal over the plugs. the sparks i was seeing seemed like they were coming from inside the wire, that is, a section of the wire(1-2 inches) would be pulsating with a internal blue glow, while the rest of the wire stayed dark...
sorry if im annoying you guys, im not trying to be annoying
EDIT: On a side note, you guys dont think i need to replace the cat... do you? cause i was getting a hotshot header for x-mas, but if i dont need to replace it i might ask for somthing else....
Why would you not want the header? It makes good power...
Anyway how about telling us the procedure you used to check the timing?
Mine was glowing when the engine scattered. All I had was a short ram intake.
scattered? i hope that doesnt mean what i think it means.....
heres the timing procedure i used:
after driving home from work(engine nice and warm),pulled into my driveway, ran the engine at around 1k rpms for 2 mins, reved above 3k 3X,let idel for 1 min, killed engine connected light to +/- bat terminals, and inductor(?) to spark plug wire #1(right after boot into head), unplugged TPS/fans/fuses for amps(just incase), restarted engine, waited for idel to even out, reved engine above 3K 3X, plugged timing light cord into timing light, checked timing... thats right..... right?
scattered? i hope that doesnt mean what i think it means.....
yeah it did. Swapped it out for the same motor, same year just 2000 les miles on it, added a HS header and Stromung exhaust to replace the exhaust system at the same time. Got my car back with the front main seal fixed and a nice boost of power.
I still have the oil pan full of parts and holes...
__________________ SE-R SpecV
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Ben Franklin
scattered? i hope that doesnt mean what i think it means.....
heres the timing procedure i used:
after driving home from work(engine nice and warm),pulled into my driveway, ran the engine at around 1k rpms for 2 mins, reved above 3k 3X,let idel for 1 min, killed engine connected light to +/- bat terminals, and inductor(?) to spark plug wire #1(right after boot into head), unplugged TPS/fans/fuses for amps(just incase), restarted engine, waited for idel to even out, reved engine above 3K 3X, plugged timing light cord into timing light, checked timing... thats right..... right?
I think your cruddy plug wires is causing you the bulk of your problems as we discussed on AIM.
__________________ SE-R SpecV
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Ben Franklin
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Unless your just wanting to stay stock.
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