on my 84 SE, i noticed last night that my converters were glowing red. thats not normal, i know. the converters are not clogged and i have good power. the engine runs fine with no problems, misses or hesitation. what would cause the glowing state? running rich? omp malfunction(too much oil?), contaminated converters? never noticed it before last night. i noticed the engine temp creep a tad and smelled burning oil. popped the hood while it was running and noticed the first converter glowing and looked under the car and sure enough, the second one was glowing as well. got any ideas?

 

anything????

 

Rich or clogged cat. That's, as far as I know, the only things that'll make your cats glow.

 

Loss of your leading ignition can cause the exhaust to heat up, but you say its running fine so thats probably not your issue. No other ideas other than what Jay suggested...

 

ok, i just wanted to add that the air pump is working just fine. also, i'll try leaning it out a TAD today and see where that puts me.

 

anything else?

 

bad alternator?

 

how would a bad alternator cause the converters to glow?

 

Ok you got my attention. WTF?

 

loss or weak spark? so unburnt fuel.......that seems kind of unlikely but possible. whats your exhaust smell like?

 

Beat me to it...however I was thinking possibly a malfunctioning A/C control ****.
Possibly even a busted speaker.

 

Obviously one of his tires are underinflated....I should have thought of that sooner!

 

Dude...you are a true master mechanic...you should work at like Jiff Lube or something...

 

Most definately a loss of voltage can cause that.
The other day one of our rental trucks lost its alternator(ironically while towing an RX).By the time the voltage got low enough to affect the combustion significantly,our exhaust system was glowing redhot and fire was shooting out the tailpipe.We caused a 90FT long brushfire along the highway!!!.......sure wish Fords had exhaust pipes on the drivers side!

Retarded timing or lack of leading ignition function will also cause the glowing.
Bad/marginal sparkplug performance.
Bad wires,cap,rotor,coils.
Clogged air filter.
Basically anything that will cause more raw,unburned fuel to enter/exit the engine,than is normal.Rotaries already run hot enough,having a combustion problem with just exacerbate the situation.

And for what its worth,my main Bonez cat,turbine housing and even the inner pipes of my RB muffler always glow a little,have for years....even under normal,sedate driving conditions.Its not excessivly bright glowing and you can only see it at night,but its always done it and it runs/smogs just fine.

 

Oh that's cold man, really cold!

Anyway, are you sure that your ignition is all running correctly and the timing is good?

When its running, do you smell strong fuel fumes? Gotta be ignition....