I just replaced the front wheel bearings in my 1988 convertible and was excited to be taking her out for a spin after a few months of sitting idle, so I started the car up and let her run for about 10 minutes to get the temperature up and fluids circulating. I then attempted to back out of the garage and noticed that the engine sounded funny and wouldn't rev past about 2k. I turned the engine off and let it sit for about 30 seconds and restarted it; the engine was running fine and revving up like normal. My friend who was watching from outside the car yelled that I was shooting fire out of the exhaust. I told him to switch with me and let me see what was going on, so he revved it a couple of times, and I didn't see any flames but instead saw a cloud of glowing embers coming out of the exhaust (single-exit Corksport). It looked very much like the embers coming out of a good camp fire/bonfire; the engine also reverted back to it's limp-mode and wouldn't rev after he took the seat. I held the throttle open in the engine bay, and the intake was making some unusual weedwhacker-like noises through the cone filter. I determined that I wasn't going anywhere, and we pushed her back into the garage. It was a sad end to the day.

Does anyone have any ideas on what might cause me to shoot embers out of my tailpipe or the engine to be unable to rev/make power? My friend brought up a couple of ideas: maybe something was living in my exhaust since it had been dormant for so long and maybe the catalytic converter was giving up the ghost and disintegrating out the back of the car...

 

sounds to me like something was trying to make a nest in your exhaust pipe :P
could also be the the convector falling apart?? try to tap it with your had to see if its braking apart dont hit it with a hammer or anything like that as it will brake it!

 

Well, while it was sitting, I actually had to have it towed because I moved from Atlanta to Lawrenceville, and when I had it towed, I noticed that a colony of ants had taken up residence in the car. They seemed to be in the trunk, interior and body panels principally, but maybe they clogged up the cat...? I got rid of the ants easily enough with a couple of ant bait/traps. I don't think I'll be able to tap the actual catalyst material, but I'll have to give it a try tomorrow.

 

if you still have a cat, it seems like its breaking apart, while clogged, and burning, then blowing out the tail pipe.

i would take the complete intake off, and clean it out , and take the exhaust off and clean it out. gut the cat if you can, or buy a new cat, or a test pipe.

 

Well, the cat looks almost new, so that's not the culprit, and the intake tract is clear.

 

most likely a nest in the exhaust and i would say that the idle issue is unrelated, often times these cars like to go into that limp mode when they sit for a while, mine use to do it when the battery died..maybe check that out

 

I checked to make sure, and there are no nests in the exhaust tract. I leave the car unplugged when I'm not using it to preserve battery life, so it spends a lot of time with no juice. Right after I start the car, it runs like normal, but just before I am about to take it out onto the road, it slips into the limp mode or whatever is going on. How do I get it to not be in limp mode? I guess the most obvious answer would be to find out what is tripping the computer to think something is wrong. The funny thing is that this "limp mode" won't even let the car limp anywhere: it doesn't make any power.

I noticed today that the idiot lights aren't all coming on like they're supposed to when I start the car up. The only two that are coming on are the low oil light and the low washer fluid light. I checked to see if the bulbs were all intact, and all of the filaments are still whole. I just had to take the ignition switch apart and sand down the contacts because they had become so corroded that the car wouldn't run; I wonder if the ECU has gotten some corrosion on the circuitry. That might explain the missing idiot lights and the limp mode... any ideas?

 

It's really hard to visually inspect a cat to see if it is clogged. Our vert wouldn't go last year very much like you describe. We pulled the exhaust and went for an ear-bleeding ride and it rev'd like nobody's business. Hollowed out the cat and it was fine.

 

.,your cat may look new Outside..but Inside..Nope.
I took my Car for an Etest.it Failed.
the cat looked ok.,.I hit it with a hammer.PING..hollow as hell.

 

try taking the cat off and rodding the out, it will get ride of everything in there. then put it back on and see what happens...