hi guys, yesterday my header glowed red after 10 minutes of driving . my water pump is leaking, and my opti went bad on friday night, and my car runs like crap . but on saturday morning i have to go to work, and this is my only car, and it was only 10 min. from my house to my work. can a bad opti caused my car to run rich/lean causing my headers to glow red ?? after i parked my car, i open the hood. smokes came out, i dont think it's a blown head gasket, because my car runs only a little bit hotter than usual, and didnt past the half way mark, and the smokes did not smell sweet what so ever. i bought a new opti ($130 of ebay) and a new waterpump ($49.99 of autozone), again can a bad opti caused this or a clogged CAT?? because this had me worried .....thanks guys

 

One thing leads to another... I feel for you.

Glowing headers indicate an overscanvenging condition. This is where you are pulling more through the exhaust port than can be provided in the intake port.

With the opti going out (water pump leaking onto it over time), you will not be able to ignite the fuel and the fuel is going to dump into the header... imagine what the Cat is going to look like soon.

Also, the water pump is really going to cause some issues with heat. It will boil at lower temps because of the relieve pressure through the leak. You are at risk of warping the aluminum heads.

I'd be very very careful. Get that waterpump replaced. Inspect the Opti... not fun to replace.

Lastly, just make sure your intake is not restricted (clean air filter). Did this happen after the header install? When did you install the headers?

 

sounds like what i had happen to me about 1 1/2 yrs ago. turned out ta be a clogged cat. if it acts really sluggish and doesnt idle worth a ****, try disconnecting you y-pipe from one side of the motor. if it runs good and idles good, it's prolly a clogged cat. just dont do what i did and take it to a scam shop and tell them ta put a high flo cat in and they gut it instead but still charge you 270 bucks!!!

 

Yep, its just a matter of time before all that fuel dumping into the exhaust melts the Cat.

 

your opti and waterpump are dead, just replace them...

 

i did not replace my headers yet. it was stock headers that were glowing last night. i'm not gonna drive my car again for the next two weeks. it might be a clogged cat, because my tranny builder was saying something about a my CAT is going bad or something like that. i'm replacing the opti, water pump, do headers swap all next week, after my exams all done. we'll see after the opti and WP replacement. just wanna make everything runs perfect before the N2O......thanks for the comments guys

 

You can't melt a catalytic converter. They are made of ceramic. Ya know, stuff like the tiles on space shuttles. I worked at ASEC/Delphi in a converter coating plant as a QC tech for a while. We'd heat the coated ceramic test parts to 560-580* C. I've seen them glow before but they don't melt. What the fuel dumping will do is mess up the noble metal coating and clog the openings w/ carbon build up.

 

so do you think replacing my opti and waterpump will fix this?? i truly hope so....

 

Cats do melt. Yes they are ceramic (same concept as the shuttle, different recipe) and yes they do melt. If you've ever pulled one off, the actual honeycomb has melted into one clump... not carbon.

The reason when we do misfire testing on vehicles... we kill the injectors, not the spark plugs. Sending raw fuel to the Cat IS bad and will cause them to melt.

If you'd pay for the shipping, I'll send you a melted cat.

 

I wish I would've taken some pictures of the melted guts in my old cat. I bet you'd be really surprised to what degree that stuff can melt....

 

Thanks madwolf, I knew I wasn't going crazy.

 

b4 you you go all ***** out and do the unnesecary, opti and w/p, gut your cat, or just do as i said and disconnect the y-pipe. thats what i was told ta do to my car by a gm mecanic of 40+ years. it worked is all i know.

 

how do you gut your cat??? just make a hole on it??

 

just dissconect the cat from the rest of the exhaust and take a BIG screwdriver or a chisel, something long enuf ta reach the back of the cat. then just hammer on the end of it till you get the honeycomb oart in small enuff peices ta get out the hole. i think you may be able ta start the car, rev the motor a few times and blow it all out. i allso heard you might be able to get the cat hot, then spreay water on the honeycomb part inside and it will shatter into small peices, never found out if that acctually works tho. gl.

 

Buddies Camaro did same exact thing as yours.....replace Opti and WP. We thought it was cat and gutted it but that didn't solve it, but the Opti did...hope this helps!!