Glowing cat
01-19-12, 08:46 PM
#1
Oil Leak
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Glowing cat
I've been trying to run my baby through the winter... but it's been rough. I have a little slap-on magnetized block heater that I put on the exhaust chamber as close to the block as I can overnight. It's worked so far until today.
After I started her this morning (about -8) and went inside to let her warm up, she died... She ran for a good ten minutes at high idle. When I though I heard the rev down to low idle is when she must have died. Could not restart before having to get to work, so I found other transportation.
Tonight (still 2 degrees) after sitting all day on a trickle charge and with the help of a 50amp starter boost I was welcomed with 1 rotor firing and BILLOWING white smoke with a slight blue tint for about 5 minutes. Pushed her outside the garage to avoid death and about then the other rotor kicked in. Once that settled down I choked the idle down to about 2000 and let her sit while I made a trip to the store. Coming back around the corner I noticed a glow underneath from about a block away. Sure enough, the cat was bright orange.
Could this be the cause for my bad milage... shitty cold (single digit and below zero F) starts, and lack of umph across the tach?
After I started her this morning (about -8) and went inside to let her warm up, she died... She ran for a good ten minutes at high idle. When I though I heard the rev down to low idle is when she must have died. Could not restart before having to get to work, so I found other transportation.
Tonight (still 2 degrees) after sitting all day on a trickle charge and with the help of a 50amp starter boost I was welcomed with 1 rotor firing and BILLOWING white smoke with a slight blue tint for about 5 minutes. Pushed her outside the garage to avoid death and about then the other rotor kicked in. Once that settled down I choked the idle down to about 2000 and let her sit while I made a trip to the store. Coming back around the corner I noticed a glow underneath from about a block away. Sure enough, the cat was bright orange.
Could this be the cause for my bad milage... shitty cold (single digit and below zero F) starts, and lack of umph across the tach?
01-19-12, 08:57 PM
#2
It definitely sounds likely. Glowing cat usually either means you're running really lean, your cat is blocked, or something else is really wonky with combustion (bad side seal causing low compression in one chamber and dumping raw air/fuel into the cat, stuff like that). All of those would cause hard starts and bad mileage. I had problems like that at one point and they got so bad that the car wouldn't start without raw gas being drizzled down the carb! I ended up fixing them by going with a Racing Beat exhaust and a Sterling carb (and doing a compression test that showed the engine itself was fine) but that's kind of like killing a fly with a really really gigantic mallet. I'm sure you'll be able to find the cause of the problem without having to overhaul your whole air/fuel/exhaust system!
Jon
Jon
01-19-12, 08:59 PM
#3
talking head
sounds to me like your running only on the trailing ignition system,, and at one point ,, one of the plugs fouled up and the car flooded badly
running on only the trailing ignition amounts to idling some 15 degrees late ,, and so cat will glow because the late combustion is still burning right up to the cat
try swapping the igniters around at the dizzy ,, you may find you lose the tacho signal ,, if so the ignitier just swapped to trailing duties is dead
running on only the trailing ignition amounts to idling some 15 degrees late ,, and so cat will glow because the late combustion is still burning right up to the cat
try swapping the igniters around at the dizzy ,, you may find you lose the tacho signal ,, if so the ignitier just swapped to trailing duties is dead
01-20-12, 08:53 PM
#6
bumpstart's got a point with the ignitors, swapping them is a quick and easy way to figure out if your leading ignition's gone. If you've got an inductive timing light you can also use it to figure out if you're getting spark on your leading plug wires.
Out of all the possibilities this is probably the easiest place to start!
Out of all the possibilities this is probably the easiest place to start!
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01-23-12, 12:03 AM
#9
Hey, another Minnesota boy chiming in. Yes, you can remove the cat here in MN, we don't do emissions testing right now. Only thing, that these guys will agree with me, is that the rotary engine is much much louder than conventional piston engines. I can't explain why, I am sure they can, but removing your cat will make the car louder. Not to mention that there is like one cat and 2 presilencers, or 2 cats and a presilencer, not counting the muffler in a stock system... something along those lines.
Yes, the cold is annoying. I was luckily able to put mine away for the winter, and it didn't start unless I had it full choked when it got colder this last fall. But I might be moving to Gainesville, Florida for school so goodbye cold winters and salt
Yes, the cold is annoying. I was luckily able to put mine away for the winter, and it didn't start unless I had it full choked when it got colder this last fall. But I might be moving to Gainesville, Florida for school so goodbye cold winters and salt
01-23-12, 12:23 AM
#10
Oil Leak
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I'm curious if any/all of them can easily be replaced with a straight bit of pipe, or if i'm going to have to hit up an exhaust shop to bend some for me?
01-23-12, 02:04 AM
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