I just bought a lt-1 day before yesterday from a mom and pops dealer. And last night I decided to run my friends gs400 once for fun (knowing I probably should of tuned it up before I ran it). So he pulls me from a dig and steady pulls away(at this point I'm thinking something is really wrong with my car), and around 85 my my car felt like it lost almost all power. The rpms drop by 2k so I let off and gave it parcial (sp?) throttle to see how it react and the car felt like it fell on its face.

We pulled over @ the nearest gas station and my exhast manifolds was glowing the brightest red I have ever seen even on a turbo. The radiator was boiling so when it cooled down we checked to see if the thermostat was opening, and it was. So I start up the car when cooled and drive half a block and at half throttle the car sees around 20 mph, the rmps will be around 1500 and will go down to 800 then jump back up. You can hear a whine in the engine bay when u start it up and when you press down on the gas.

This morning I found out the water pump is leaking, I know this will solve my overheating but would this cause the car to loose power. There is no ses light coming on or anything! It feels like I'm on four cyclinders. I don't see any smoke no knocking anything! The car isn't under warranty but the guy sent a tow truck to pick up my car and is gonna send it to one of his mechnics to take a look at it. What can be causing this? Blown head gasket? The car is a 94 a4 z28, has about 180,000 miles on it. Please help! Anyone??

 

odd that there would be no SES light. If you found a leaky waterpump, chances are it leaked right into your optispark. before you go down that road, you might wanna try plugs/wires first.

 

Agree with above. Fix the water pump first - hell, while your down there mightas well throw a new opti on anyway with that many miles on the car (depending on when your current one was put it....assuming the original didn't go 180k though some do...). If the guy is offering to pay for any of this, that's your best option along with plugs and wires as well. Either way, I know you are having a mechanic take a look at it I know...

 

I would not deal with it at all. It would be taken back to the dealership. The problems you are talking about should not have gone un-noticed by the dealer. In the event that they did you should bring it to their attention so that they can handle the repair.

 

Manifolds glowing + down on power = clogged cat

 

My thoughts exactly. Those clogged cats will make them run like h3ll. My friend clogged up and he couldnt even make it up the small hill into his driveway. And in the case of a cat getting clogged, the dealer might have not known this was happening because they can clog all of a sudden.

 

Man, i always thought if your cat cloged, you could just floor it and blow all the crap out

 

I agree... a lot of times the RPM's will not get past a certain point or it will
rev really slowly...

 

no ther is no way to blow it out, I gutted mine. and the way they look on the inside is long honey comb elements that have very small honey comb openings, smaller then a writing pen in diameter. if a piece of the breaks off it normally truns sideways and clogs the holes, or sometimes clog the pipe leaving the cat as well. Imagine a 1 liter water bottle, laying on its side in from of a bunch of drinking straws, then having aire flow through the straws, there will be no way to just blow that out...

SLOW Z just unbolt the connection between the cat and the I-pipe take a long item and hammer it into the cat to break all that crap out of there so it is then small enough to blow it out the the back of the cat.. Whoops just realized your in Cali, just go get a new cat put on..

 

gut the cat, its free and you can consider it a performance mod.

then replace the waterpump and replace the optispark for good measure.


then take it to the track and see what times she'll pull.

 

oh yea, almost forgot:

fix the intake oil leak as well. you'll see it

 

Yeah I know that's strange but there is no ses light, but I know it works. And if it were the opti spark wouldn't that make it come on? Or maybe the o2's by the cat isn't any good and isn't telling me? Well none the less I'm calling the guy a little bit later to see if they found out anything yet. But when I puched it from a dig the tires chirped a little but that was it. I have a selectable 1st gear and the 150mph speedo, so I figure I have the 3.23 gears. In the next week or so I plan on replacing plugs,wires, o2's, gas filter, and whatever else you guys reccomend. Do you think that will break them loose? I'm really wondering where my power is going.

And if I end up gutting the cat how would it sound? What kinda problems could this cause? And about just turning it in.... I don't think its possible. I tried contacting lemon law and they said more than likely my car wouldn't qualify, and there was no warranty "as is". I really appreciate you guys help and concern. Nice way to welcome a brother! Keep you guys posted.....