MAJOR PROBLEM...need help

[94firebird21]

well i went to taco bell to meet up with a couple buddies but they had already left, and my car had started to make a funny noise the day before so i popped the hood to see f i could here it better and see where it was coming from. well i looked under the hood i saw red so im like wut the hell so i brought my car home and look again and both of the exhaust manifolds were glowing bright red, so i called don and he said it was the cat so i went and got a new cat put on yesterday and last night i checked and its still doing the same thing. Wut would be causing this???

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

Need a bit more information...

What kind of "noise"?

Is the check engine light on?

What was the engine temp?

Was there any performance loss?

My first guess would be a plugged EGR valve, but I wouldn't drive it much until you get the problem isolated.

Glowing red is not a good thing...

[94firebird21]

cant really tell ya wut the sound is, umm its like a ticking but it not ticking i dont really know.... no lights on, temp is like it always has been, perfomance loss i havent really noticed any difference(its a v6 so it never was very quick lol)

[CollinsAutomotive]

Sounds like a missfire is swelling up the cat and creating loads of back pressure. At this point i would be willing to bet that the cat has fialed and melted and now will need replacement. Typically glowing manifold mean plugged cat but its almost always a missifre that cuases the cat failure.

[94firebird21]

Sounds like a missfire is swelling up the cat and creating loads of back pressure. At this point i would be willing to bet that the cat has fialed and melted and now will need replacement. Typically glowing manifold mean plugged cat but its almost always a missifre that cuases the cat failure.

i just had a new cat put on it yesterday

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

I'll try another guess...

It could still be a fouled EGR valve, but you would probably have the check engine light on if it was.

Another possibility would be a broken vacuum line to the solenoid. If the solenoid isn't getting vacuum, the EGR isn't getting vacuum, and your ECM is being fooled into jacking your timing up to compensate for it.

Also check to make sure all the connections to the solenoid are still in place.

If this just happened all of a sudden, it could very well just be a busted vacuum line or a broken connection.

The ticking you hear is probably one of two things...

1. The exhaust manifolds expanding and contracting (noise happens while car is shut down as well).

2. Engine pinging (noise only when running). If this is the noise, this would be of another symptom of a vacuum/solenoid/EGR failure as your ECM has cranked your timing too high.

Of course you could have noise 1 and 2, but you should be able to tell the difference.

Let us know how the investigation goes...

[94firebird21]

ti sounds like the noise is coming from the exhaust manifolds and the sound wasnt there until i noticed the glowing either....this all started after a lot of messing around on the highway saturday night. thats when the sound started and then sunday night i noticed the exhaust manifolds

[CollinsAutomotive]

ti sounds like the noise is coming from the exhaust manifolds and the sound wasnt there until i noticed the glowing either....this all started after a lot of messing around on the highway saturday night. thats when the sound started and then sunday night i noticed the exhaust manifolds

You have a missfire or a very lean running engine. However very hard running IE lots of WOT time will make the manifold glow but they shouldn;t stay red for more then a few seconds.

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

You have a missfire or a very lean running engine. However very hard running IE lots of WOT time will make the manifold glow but they shouldn;t stay red for more then a few seconds.

A couple of questions...

1. If it's misfiring, would both manifolds glow, or just the one with the misfire?

2. If the engine had a lean condition, wouldn't the check engine light be on?

Just some idle thoughts...

[CollinsAutomotive]

A couple of questions...

1. If it's misfiring, would both manifolds glow, or just the one with the misfire?

2. If the engine had a lean condition, wouldn't the check engine light be on?

Just some idle thoughts...

on a 94 there is no catalyst monitor or missfiring monitoring so no the check engine light won't be on. the engine might not be lean enough at part throttle where the PCM check for a lean condition that it wouldn;t be noticable only becuase the problem exists under heavy throttle. Yes it will make both manifolds can and will glow if the Catlyst is closing up due to missifres and the fact that the Cat was replaced Points to a different set of issues with the car.

[meissen]

Now I don't know much about mechanical stuff, but I know the guy at AutoZone said that the 94 OBD-I was "tricky" and didn't always through a code even though something was wrong. According to that guy, you can't find the codes sometimes unless you do a full scope.

[MattODoom]

My headers were glowing orange the first time I fired my car. I didnt have enough timing in so the combustion was still taking place in the headers and heating them up to red hot.

Does your car have a distributor? If so you may have your timing retarded too far.

[WMCC Gary]

Now I don't know much about mechanical stuff, but I know the guy at AutoZone said that the 94 OBD-I was "tricky" and didn't always through a code even though something was wrong. According to that guy, you can't find the codes sometimes unless you do a full scope.

No offense, but most of the people that I've seen work at those kind of stores (autozone, advance, etc.) don't know anything about cars. They only know what the computer tells them. And thats not much.

[Orange Terror]

No offense, but most of the people that I've seen work at those kind of stores (autozone, advance, etc.) don't know anything about cars. They only know what the computer tells them. And thats not much.

Yeah, I pulled in with my Camaro to buy oil at one last year, and this moron was telling me how much faster his Grand Prix was after putting a K&N air filter on it. I was like, um ok. I'm sure it was more responsive and a touch quicker, but not th 100 hp this butthole thought he got from it. lol

[willasc]

Yeah, I pulled in with my Camaro to buy oil at one last year, and this moron was telling me how much faster his Grand Prix was after putting a K&N air filter on it. I was like, um ok. I'm sure it was more responsive and a touch quicker, but not th 100 hp this butthole thought he got from it. lol

Yeah, I can agree with that. I always had K&N filters put on my car, I hardly ever see any performance gain from them, it just flows a tad bit better I guess. I do questions the knowledge of these autozone guys.