I've been having some problems with my car not wanting to idle lately and it has a serious lack of power. The engine is a LE 383. Last night when I got home, it wouldn't idle and was running bad, so I parked the car and got out and noticed that the bottom of the car was glowing. The cat was cherry red and the piped going to it and from it. So I assumed that the cat had went bad, so I took it off and it is fine. The cat is a Catco cat and only has about 100 miles on it. The only code I;m getting is that the right O2 sensor is reading lean, and I'm not sure why, the O2s are brand new. Any one have an idea what would cause the cat to get this hot?

 

usually when it is clogged it will glow red. but since it is running lean i have no idea. you sure it is lean because usually you o2 sensors will crap out when it is rich and it will also clog the cat as far as i know.

 

what kind of gas do you run in that? Leaded gas will almost instantly clog a catalytic converter

 

glowing convertor means it is running RICH, and a O2 that reads lean will make the computer add fuel, making it rich

is it missing at all?
exhaust leak?
swap O2s sensors(side to side), does the lean reading follow the sensor?

 

I run unleaded 93 octane. The car is not missing, or at least not bad. I'll try swapping the O2s. Also the vacum is really low also, about 11 inches at idle. The cat is definately not clogged or broken.

 

low vac reading often indicates a vacuum leak, which will also cause what you are seeing, as well as a miss if it is at a single runner

 

I can;t find any vacum leaks, and my vacum canister is holding vacum well after I shut the car off if that makes a difference. I think the cam just don't make much vacum and its messing the map senser up, but it still don't make sense for the cat to glow.