bdmustang1994

Ok so i replaced my intake manifold yesterday, had the original plastic exchange one on my 97 GT conv. After everything was put back together it started just fine, and ran good for a few min, no idle problems that i could tell. But later that night when i went to take it out for a drive i made it about 2 miles before i had to stop at a light, when i did it backfired and started idling really hard. I pulled over checked all my connections, and im not leaking coolant anymore, thank God, and no fuel that i can tell, and unless i missed something everything was hooked back up the same as i labeled it when i took it off. Anyways when i limped it back home i finally noticed that my cat convertor was GLOWING RED, which im sure isn't good so my question now is what didn't i do right when i hooked everything back up to cause this?? i did removed all my fuel injectors and cleaned them when i had the engine torn apart, but i put everything back of course. I took the mass air sensor and the intake out just to have more room also, not sure if that matters or not. Any ideas as to why i almost caught my car on fire??

96GT226410

If the cat is glowing red hot, then it's clogged. Is it factor? How many miles? Get underneath the car and tap the cat with a rubber hammer and listen. If the catalyst inside has crumbled, it'll rattle. If so, replace your mid pipe.

bdmustang1994

I should also mention that it was ONLY the driver's side cat that started glowing, just forgot to put that into my original post. And yes i do hear a rattling noise coming from it when the car was running, so im guessing you're right and it's crumbled. Did that happen becuase of the extreme heat and it just died then?? So now my question is what could have caused it to get that hot in the first place, and only 1 side to get that hot?? i have no problem replacing my mid pipe, was thinking like an H or Z pipe (excuse to replace it, oh dear it broke and needs replaced ) anyways ive read a couple other things about how if the engine was running too rich that would cause the cat to overheat and glow like that, and that seems very plausable to me because the exhaust smells like im running really rich. what changed that caused me to start running that rich? was it beacuse i cleaned the injectors when i had them out? Thanks for the help.

BigTurbo6

They just get old and melt/clog. That's why we get rid of those restrictive things for racing. Also I'd do a H pipe before doing a Z pipe!! I'm sure you meant X, but I couldn't help it.

bdmustang1994

No i ment Z pipe i wanted to see how restricted i could get in my exhaust flow, lol. anyways i talked to my uncle who said i would have to get my computer reprogrammed to work with an H or X pipe vs the cat setup from the factory, is that true, and if so is it worth getting a mid pipe and having it reprogrammed or just buy a new cat and stick er on there to replace the one that rattles??

breagles

You can have my old h-pipe it's stock but good . If you can pick up in san antonio .

Zanador

Hrm.. a Z pipe... It might be a halfway between a H and a X... I wonder if anyone has ever tried that. It would favor the passenger side at higher RPM's because it would only send exhaust that way, but who knows! Would be interesting to see built.

ben790450

+1 on the Z pipe. Do that!