ok took my car to the frigin Mazda dealer to to try and figure out what problem I was having with my car ( https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=597712 ) and they said they couldnt find a problem. I went to go pick it up last night and on the way home the car was totally loosing power and the engine was getting hot....I pulled off to the side of the road and shut down my car; opened the hood; and I see like a molten glow coming from my exhaust manifold. But the car didnt reach over 35 miles per hour. what the hel is going on? anyone know?

 

clogged cats?

that would deffinitely slow her down.

 

your first mistake was taking it to the mazda dealer

 

what kind of exhaust do you have? is it all stock?

 

seems normal to me. my downpipe gets redhot and i have no cats, so i can only imagine how hot the manifold would be.

 

likely plugged cats, it will be more pronounced when the engine is warm.

 

I had this happen in a GSLSE on a cross country trip from san diego to colorado. Eventually I ended up stopped by the side of the road with my passenger reving the engine while I banged on the converters with a hammer (had no other tools). after about 20 minutes most of the converter blew out through the exhaust and I was able to make it to the next major town where a muffler shop made me a test pipe which after confirming that the converters was the problem they convienently left in place.

 

+1

and +1 on the clogged cats. I'll bet that's your culprit.

 

so this could all be to clogged cats? how in the hell does that happen? you think maybe a rodent or something crawled up there and died or the cat is falling apart?

 

carbon deposits and burning oil also extremely rich conditions all leave deposits on the cat, over time it multiplies on itself until the cats become nearly completely clogged up or melt down and form a solid clump of molten material blocking the exhaust flow.


most of the time i find the cats dead after the engine requires a rebuild, coolant in the engine also does not do any favors to the cats, nor does excessive oil consumption or blown apex seals.

 

i would most likely say that its due to a rich condtion for quite a while also combined with the oil comsumption that naturally happens in a rotary, i wouldnt really say that the motor needs a rebuild

 

I think karack was saying that after you pop a seal, you will often need new cats, because of all the fuel and metal shards that find their way down the exhaust

he was not implying that this engine necessarily needs a rebuild


i also recall hearing that this symptom could be caused by extremely retarded timing because the gases are still burning as they exit the engine

 

hmmm....well i did have a new engine put in about a year and a half ago but it sat for over a year during deployment to Iraq. So the total miles on the new engine is like under 3000. As far as the cat is concerned, the cat itself was a rebuilt 2 years prior to the engine being replaced. it is a pace setter exhaust system. me and my friend are going to take off the cat this weekend and see if that was the culprit. i will also recheck the timing. If the cat is the problem i will just straight pipe it since i have no emmsions to worry about. I will keep you all updated and thank you for the help.