I searched and couldn't find my exact problem....which is I started the car today (hasn't been started in about a week, last time it was started was fine) then today it was running like crap, about 500 rpm and stuttering badly while warming up, it got about 1/4 way warmed up and the second pre-cat and the main cat (all cats are gutted completely) started smoking horribly with white smoke, they were also crackling, what could be the problem? Am I sucking coolant?

 

could be, does the exhaust smell like rotten eggs or very sweet?

rotten eggs = broken cats
sweet = burning coolant

 

That's the odd thing, it doesn't smell like coolant, or oil, or cat smell, because there's nothing in the cats to be burning, just the metal casing (or is there some sort of heat protection lining inside the cat?). The smoke was coming from where the cats join together. Thinking about it, possibly the exhaust just got extremely hot (which is another problem, then) and started toasting the seals in the exhaust.

 

mm the exhaust gaskets are crushed steel or w/e. metal anyways. i would think that unlikely. Would only be happening if your cats are glowing red, but you said they are stripped?

are you running your emissions/air pump?

 

That's what I thought. Yes they are stripped, and they looked fine, no glowing or anything. Yes all emissions still in place.

 

Sounds like you lost your leading ignition.....

 

So for clarification, the car could have an ignition failure somewhere?

I am having similar problems but I think it is because there is grease and oil on the cover that protects the cat. Although, my car does produce small backfires when warming up on the choke so my timing could be off too causing the hotter exhaust?

Smoke makes me paranoid! hah best of luck to your car!

and thanks for the contributions to this thread.

 

If your timing is too far retarded (spark firing too late), then all of that heat and energy will get shot right out the exhaust ports of the motor, rather than producing power. This means that the exhaust will get very very hot.

If you loose spark on the leading ignition, then the results will be the same as highly retarded timing. The car will run like crap, but you'll still be able to drive it while you wonder where all that smoke is coming from. For some reason, when this happens it causes the engine to get hotter than usual, even though the coolant temps will read fine. So, you pop your hood and wonder about all the smoke coming off the motor from all the old oil and **** that was built up on it.

Pull off a spark plug wire, stick an old plug into it, and crank her over to see if it sparks. Good luck....

 

Hmm.. yes I do have to double check my timing. I just need to buy a timing gun.

From my night time observations during warm up idle with choke, everything before the cat glows but seems to be brightest around the inlet of the cat. I guess I may have a restriction in the cat but I'll check timing first.

I also read that too much fuel could be spitting out hitting the hot pipes causing backfires which I do get a lot of little pops. So I could be too rich? I thought that being too lean will cause backfiring and hotter exhaust.

Looks like I'll be conducting a few experiments to solve my glowing cat problem. They get so hot that whatever residue on it smokes also. Probably grease from my fmoc oil leak. And since my shift boot is torn, smoke sometimes enters the cabin too. Life of a seven for sure.

 

You don't need a timing light to verify if you have spark. I'm betting that you have no spark on the leading (lower) plugs.

 

Could I be missing leading? If I tap the accelerator pedal the RPMs does not hesitate and the car accelerates and performs well minus the red cat and little continuous pops on warm up.

 

If performance is still good, then the timing is retarded. Pretty safe bet, anyway. If the cat was plugged, you'd have a performance loss and the same goes for loss of leading ignition.

Only other real possibility that comes to mind would be an extremely lean condition. Does the exhaust smell like gas?

 

No rich fuel smell. It actually smells pretty clean with a hint of a carb'd motor. It passed smog 2 months ago too so I guess that tells me the engine is performing pretty well. I tuned the fuel mixture per Sterling's instructions. Maybe I'll try to richening it up but I think that only helps at idle IIRC.