Hello all i have been having trouble with my 7 lately started smoking from the cat on my way home from work one day, So i pulled the cat and it is fine after doing some searching on here i thought it might be the plugs or wires so i checked the plugs and changed teh wires, still does not fix the problem. I also got out a timing lite and tryed setting the timing and it is good as far as i can tell, ( i am a little rotarded) If there is anyone that could come by and give me a hand by taking a look at it i would greatly appreciate it, i live in commerce tx witch is 30 mins north of greenville. i have tryed everything that i could find and can not seem to find the problem, the down pipe and the cat glow red hot and smoke after about 10 mins at an idle.

 

Does it feel down on power at all? I'm thinking you aren't getting spark to a rotor (ignitor or something similar?) and its causing the exhaust to have too much unburned fuel.

Try to see if you are getting spark to all the plugs.

 

if ur cat's done started smoking, there's too much stress in it's life and u need to start it on the patch. but seriously tho, maybe it's stopped up.

 

That could be it too...do you have the air pump hooked up still?

 

I have already pulled the cat and down pipe and looked at the honeycomb in the cat and it seems fine. as for spark to all the plugs im not sure is there an easy way to check it?

 

pull one plug at a time and leave it hooked up to the wire..


Set the plug/wire on the shock tower and crank it over, you will see and hear the spark. if you have a bad ignitor either the top or bottom two will not spark. if a wire only one etc... check to make sure the contacts are clean on the cap and rotor also.

 

hmmm.....i pulled one plug at a time and they all sparked and one shocked me cause i made the mistake of touching it when my girl turned it over , i am out of ideas anyone else have any?

 

If they glow, they're probably getting hot from being too lean. Do you still have your ACV hooked up and all that? I'd check to make sure ACV is working correctly.

 

honestly im not sure if it is still hooked up or not like i said im rotarded im still learning about them, from what i can tell it has pretty much everything it came with including the rats nest. im getting ready to jsut sell it and find something else......

 

could it be smoking because there is something leaking ON it?

 

No the only thing that has even a slight leak is the power steering pump but it will start to smoke after about 10 mins at idle, and the exiting exhaust from the tail pipe is extremly hot

 

How's the engine itself? Does it feel hot? Does it ping/detonate? If the high temperatures are in the exhaust only and only at idle, perhaps the ACV is dumping too much air into the exhaust ports or cat. I forget which one it is. Normally some unburnt fuel is going into exhaust, and ACV injects a bit of air to help it burn up quickly. Not sure if it'll get hot when it fails to regulate the exhaust air, but it's possible things would overheat there.

There are also 3 cats. Did you check all three?

Or maybe the mixture in the engine itself is lean. Typically at idle it should run fairly rich. Basically too much air in the mixture will cause much higher temperatures and hotter exhaust. On a rotary the exhaust is already quite hot to begin with.

But I suspect it's something to do with your ACV. I'd say unplug it for the sake of a test or remove it and block off the hole with a metal plate. Since you're still using converters, don't run it too long with ACV off, because it'll hurt them.

You should download the FSM, also. It explains how ACV works and how to test it.

 

Don't give up! SE's are very dependable once you get them sorted.

 

Yeah, that's the tough part. It's like saying satellites fly pretty good, once you get them into orbit.

I've been trying to get my sorted for ages.

 

ya i wish i had the time to mess with it and really do it right but it was my back up bad weather car when i could not ride my bike but i need something truelly reliable that will start and run right every time, or at least one that i can work on that will not take a solid weekend for a simple fix, I work way to many hours for that. so i am most likely going to either fix it and sell it for what i have into it or sell it as is and get some of my money back out of it. so if anyone knows of anyone wanting a clean 84 SE pics are in my album let me know. for now im going to try to fix it

 

There really aren't that many things that can cause the exhaust to overheat.

1. Loss of leading spark
2. Timing is firing too late (retarded)
3. Engine is running lean (not enough fuel)
4. Exhaust is clogged

Since you've already eliminated a couple of those items, at least you've got a good start on things.






.

 

I'm gonna guess that the timing is off and most of the fuel is burning in the manifold.