I'm a weee bit tired right now, spent all day (in light rain) doing the opti swap... had to make a trip to get a pulley puller to get the accessory drive pulley (or whatever its called) off. Did it solo, didn't have anyone to help so it took forever to do . Good news is the opti install was a success! started right up, no shaking or anything. Bad news is im exhausted, more frustrated than ever and the problem is still there. (I'm trying very very hard to keep this post to the point and civil )

Anyhow, my car is acting just like it did before... Automatic trans if that helps.
After warming up it runs like crap. It's like it doesn't want to drive and has no power. It has a hard time accellerating and just doesnt feel good abouve 30mph. I don't think it'll run on the highway at all...
I had glowing exhaust manifolds when i checked under the hood. Previous to the opti install it was glowing bright red on both sides. This time i didnt drive it much so it looked a tad red on the left and i couldnt really see if the right side was red hot as well, if it was it was less red then the left. The point at which it starts glowing the most appears to be where the 7 and 8 cylinder on the other side, merge with the rest of the pipes.

I should also add that there is a new metallic sounding rattling coming from under the car and behind the engine.. I can't quite locate where it is exactly, I have no idea if its related, but it seems to be a new sound and happens even if idling.

Does anyone have any ideas as to whats going on!? CAT pops to mind.. or Converter.. or spark plugs.. or O2's. I've replaced or cleaned almost EVERYTHING now on the car now.

If you have a good idea as to what the problem might be PLEASE reply to this post. I apologize for the long read

PS Thank you everyone if you helped out with my opti install questions earlier, it made all the difference in the world

 

with the manifolds glowing and noise under and behing i would definately say cat, you cant blame the opti for everything like most people want to do

matter of fact i am doing to try to blame the opti on my up and coming divorce case

 

I'm no mechanic...that being said, are you sure your wires are in right order with plugs, have you put it on a scanner, what codes is it pulling if any, did you hook up your vacuum lines properly, did you get the right opti, and was it new?

 

How can you tell if it is your cat?

 

Scanner readings look pretty Ok to me. I'm 100% sure the wires are ok since it idles fine and also because i taped each one with a number and tripled checked both sides before continuning The car is pulling ZERO codes, brand new opti and the vaccume lines were both hooked up. It's been acting this way before and after the opti install.

I decided to install the opti in hopes it would fix this but also because of a weird stumble i've had under light acelleration on the hwy. I won't know if thats fixed until the main problem at hand is fixed of course. I had almost 200,000 km on that opti!

I'm leaning heavily towards Cat too.. I might just gut it to find out whats up... unless someone can say they're 90% sure its something else

 

I would look at your O2's.

 

I have had similar problems, but I don't have cats, that is why I said vacuum lines. Yea, they may be hooked up, but if they are backwards that tends to give you some problems. LOL. Anyway, I asked about the opti cause even new ones can still be bad(I want your old one for parts) and I believe they still sell the unvented ones. I'm sure yours is vented though. It wouldn't be your O2's if you aren't pulling any codes either.

 

Yea i was afraid of getting a bad opti.. the thing appeared tottaly fine and was packaged really well. Plus symptoms are identical before and after the job today so im glad i can at least rule out the opti at this point! Sounds really like its my CAT, but usually people mention their cats are glowing not their manifolds :/

 

Know anyone with a scanner? Just read all of your sensors before you start throwing parts at it.

 

I have my own cables, laptop and software... I'm hoping to scan it tomorrow when i have some more time No SES codes and the car wasn't looking too out of the norm when it was exhibiting the same symptoms before the opti install as the symptoms i have now.

 

What are your O2 mV doing when the car is running like crap. I'd put money that it's either the cats, O2's or both.

 

First things first. Does the car run fine in open loop ( Below 180 deg?)


If so the problem is probably your O2s but you need to pull codes on it to be sure.

If not could be a cat problem but again PULL CODES and see what the ECM is telling you.

 

Check for plugs wires and then o2s then vacum leaks..

 

Like said before it it runs good and perfect before reaching closed loop (about 160 to 180 degrees as said) then its more than likely your O2s, but you could allways uncork the exhaust and see if it behaves better. If youre car is a 95 earlier I would disonnect the exhaust behind the cat, see if it behaves differently, then drop the Y pipe from the exh manifolds and see what happens.

The only real way to check back pressure is to weld some screw in type bungs on before and after the cat (make sure you can plug them) an dmeasure the pressure before the cat and after the cat, if there is a huge difference (like 10 psi or more) there is a nice restriction in the cat.

Also check your fuel pressure, when was the last time you checked your fuel filter?

 

Fuel pressure checked out fine and the filter was changed 2 or 3 months ago. I will find out if it does it cold on the way to work this morning.. I'm pretty sure it does it cold too... I don't recall the Mv's but they were bouncing around as they should and the integrators and blms were not far from 128 too.