Clogged Cats?

[JaredJHuffman]

'95 ATX

My mechanic says my car acts like it has clogged cats, but when he got under there he discovered I have no cats. He was quite impressed with the job done to put fake ones up to look like it was legal (this was news to me, but I'm not entirely disappointed ). Anyways now they can't figure out what is wrong with it. They ran it with no exhaust and it still acted clogged. I was told that my car needs to go to a dealer because the shop doesn't have the necessary software to look into this further. Is there anything I can do short of surrendering to the monetary ****** of seeing a dealer to fix my car?

I posted before I took it in with no good results.
http://www.shoforum.com/showthread.php?t=49970

-Jared J Huffman

 

[Sexymeatball]

Did you check everything that was suggested in your previous post? Has a 60k been done? Give us some info on the condition of your car.

 

[JoesSHO]

I've heard that catless cars exhibit less torque down low vs. catted cars. How bad is it?

 

[SHO#7]

By reading your other post, I get this impression. Let me know if I am correct.

Car ran fantastic. You had the timing belt changed. Now the car runs poor. Is this correct?

Mike

 

[SHOtimer]

By reading your other post, I get this impression. Let me know if I am correct.

Car ran fantastic. You had the timing belt changed. Now the car runs poor. Is this correct?

Mike

I got that impression also. I would check your timing, you could be off a tooth, and that would cause what is going on. You can check it yourself....

http://www.shophoenixproject.com/lower60k/lower60k.htm

Doug

 

[JaredJHuffman]

The acceleration problems are still getting worse. There is now also a sort of jerking type of acceleration when I try to gas it and it doesnt feel like going. I have also recently expereinced some starting issues (longer crank time, refused to start once).

The secondaries are not stuck open I can feel everything change at 4000 rpms.

It did look kind of like there was oil in one of the plug wells. How do I really check this and how do I fix it if there is?

How exactly would it act if the timing belt were off a tooth?

Thanks for looking at this again.

 

[TYSHO]

I've heard that catless cars exhibit less torque down low vs. catted cars. How bad is it?

Well I heard the cow jumped over the moon!

 

[JaredJHuffman]

Now it seems to be getting too hot. This is part of why they thought it was clogged cats (it blew my O2 sensors). I am sure I smell radiator fluid, and I forgot to mention it blew a radiator hose a week before I took it in.

The smell could also be due to the fact that when I replaced the hose I didn't clean the engine very thoroughly...

Any new thoughts?

 

[SHO#7]

By reading your other post, I get this impression. Let me know if I am correct.

Car ran fantastic. You had the timing belt changed. Now the car runs poor. Is this correct?

Mike

Please answer, then we can help further.

Have you checked your codes?

 

[JaredJHuffman]

Yes I have checked the codes and continue to periodically. I have not cleared them and nothing has come up since the last time I posted the codes.

I'll copy them into the bottom.

It is hard to say that the problem began right after the timing belt was changed because it propogated fairly gradually. It got worse and worse and still seems to be getting worse.

Now I am having a longer crank time to get it started. Sometimes I need to give it a little gas to get it going/keep it from stalling right when I start it up.

One of the three plug wells I looked in seemed to have thick sludge or oil or something in it. I'm not too sure what to do about that or if it could be related to this sort of thing.




Here's my old post with the codes...

"I pulled the codes and this is what I got:

Key On Engine Off

335 (O) EGR feedback signal is/was out of range - EVR or PFE

111 System checks OK

------------------------------
Key On Engine Running

326 (R,M) Pressure Feedback EGR shows low pressure EGR not seating or not seating intermittantly - PFE

225 (R) Knock sensor not tested (ignore if not pinging) - KS

------------------------------
Cylinder Balance Test
9 No Problems"

 

[operdot]

I would start by changing the valve cover gasket and while you are in there might as well take the timing cover off and check the timing........ it really sounds like a VCG tho

 

[JaredJHuffman]

Would that cause the longer crank times? It is taking longer and longer to start the car and sometimes it takes quite a bit of coaxing.

-Jared J Huffman

 

[JaredJHuffman]

The Dealer

So I broke down and took it to a dealer. They tell me that as soon as I you turn off the car, the fuel pressure dies. This causes the longer crank times as it needs to regain the necessary fuel pressure again in order to start. I'm also told that the fuel pressure is poor but functional if the engine is running. So I guess it looks like a new fuel pump for starters.