Almost had a car-b-q today...

[green95]

Heres what happened. I took my SHO for a ride today, and when I turned off the main road onto a side road it started running poorly. When I stepped on the gas it wouldn't rev up and could barely stay running. I thought it was fuel pump issues so I tried to make it too a boat ramp 2 miles down the road. When I came to the stop sign, it stalled and was pouring smoke. I opened the hood and looked under the car to find my rear converter glowing bright red. Also, it was dripping a gross brown slick stuff on the ground that didnt have any smell to it. It was dripping by the front cat but that cat wasn't glowing. All the fluids are still full but I think the heat shield is toast now. No pun intended. Anybody know what that stuff might be?? Car cooled down and the wrecker driver was able to drove it onto the flatbed. I couldn't post the photos here, but this is the link.

http://s832.photobucket.com/albums/zz250/m_tho07/sho puke/

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

ATX?

Maybe fluid from the motor mount you just cooked?

 

[green95]

It is an ATX. It was a lot of fluid. I pushed the car out of the intersection and it dripped about the same amount of fluid as in the picture.

 

[lowc]

i was thinkin melted mount as well

 

[trainguy1989]

x3 melted engine mount

 

[green95]

I had it towed to the dealer I work at, and it started right up this morning. I didn't run it for more than 10 seconds but it sounds like its missing. Did I hurt it badly? All the fluids are full and not burned. The motor never overheated. The tech here is telling me that clogged cats can cause a missfire. Is that whats happening? Any recommendations on what I should replace other than the cats and motor mount? I just put the O2 sensors in last month!! Are they fried?

 

[hawkeye18]

X5 motor mount. ATX motor mounts contain an amazing amount of thick goopy brown shit inside them. Thus, hydraulic mounts.

Making the cats glow can be caused by a rich mixture, but a clogged cat can certainly make it glow as well. A clogged cat will also make your engine run like shit, too.

 

[green95]

I dont think its running rich. Doesn't smell like it is and my mpg's are in the mid 20's. If I replace just the cats and motor mount should that solve the problem and correct the missfire?

 

[TopGunnYFZ]

It would be a start LOL Take a good look at those 02's they probably got *****'d if the Y actually got that hot.

 

[sperold]

The O2 sensors are maybe what probably caused this whole fiasco in the first place, so take them out and put in Motorcraft.
Have a look at the plugs too, the ones on the side of the firey converter.
You only get a CEL when the O2 sensors are way out of range (like 25%). Your cats were enjoying a rich enough mixture (unburnt gas from either your miss or your 02's) to light them up.
Have a look at night under your hood to make sure it is not your wires.

 

[green95]

When I had my oil pan resealed, the idiot at Ford dropped the cats. I wonder if that might have also caused problems. I did have a faint rattle after that.

 

[93rev2sev]

It's easy to clog a cat when working on the car. I was once working on a contour 2.0 EGR system and had to disco the cat to get clearance for a wrench. When I dropped the exhaust, the manifold to cat gasket dropped a metric **** ton of little aluminum flakes right onto the honeycomb surface of the cat. It was easy enough to vacuum it all out of there and put a rag in the pipe, but I would bet most mechanics would not be paying close enough attention (or care enough) to vacuum out dust and debris before bolting back up a y-pipe.

 

[hawkeye18]

if somebody dropped the cats, it is entirely possible (and indeed likely) that he knocked some of the substrate loose. This would have caused the rattling. You are very lucky it didn't get sucked back into the engine and f*** all sorts of shit up.

 

[green95]

Right about now I'm thrilled it didn't have the same results as the white one! Anyone have an idea about the missfire? Could it be the cats? I haven't been able to look at it yet but am going to put it on the lift later and inspect everything.

 

[hawkeye18]

I doubt it's a misfire. I think what's happening is that since the rear cat is clogged, there is significant back pressure on the rear cylinders, possibly to the point that the piston is meeting significant resistance on the exhaust stroke, making it feel like it's stumbling and misfiring.

You need to fix that cat pronto. Whether it's with your wallet or with a giant screwdriver, something needs to happen.

 

[93rev2sev]

Have you recently done any work on the engine?

 

[green95]

I like the screwdriver idea! Cars parked for now. Its not my daily driver anymore. I don't want to go with used cats and have the same problem, so whats a good recommendation for new cats? Also, no recent engine work. Had new seals installed a few months ago and the whole car is 100% factory specs.

 

[hawkeye18]

Catco and Walker both make replacement Y-pipes (if you're replacing one, you really should replace both, it just cuts down on problems down the road). RockAuto sells them pretty cheap, or if you want to support the SHO community SHOSource sells them also. The price isn't much more, if you can put up with their broke-dick shopping cart system.

FPS based out of Atlanta sells a high-flow Y-pipe for ATXs for about $580 + shipping. I've heard it's a very, very good unit. http://www.fordspecialists.com/partsandservices/performanceparts.html

It's up to you. A giant screwdriver, assuming you have one already, is free. I assume you know what I'm referring to when I say that?

 

[green95]

I'll probably go through SHOsource if the price is right. I don't need anything fancy. Just a good replacement will work for me. Since I'll be under there I'll replace both cats. Had planned on doing that after the seeing the crispy sho thread but money is tight.

 

[moobypets]

but this crap could be the honey comb material from the cat

ive seen it once and it looked like that