Problem, help appreciated

[hot metal]

Earlier this year, about May I think, the car cut out about 30 seconds after starting & took about 10 minutes to get going again .It did not show up any more issues until about 3 weeks ago, I backed it out of the garage, running a bit ragged & then it cut out, again 5-10 minutes of leaning on the starter off & on to get it going. Good job the battery is strong. Again it ran ok for about a week & then did it again a week last Sunday
This time it did not exactly cut out straight off, it ran very badly, I had the bonnet up to take a look, it was emitting some bad banging noises but not out of the exhausts & I was having trouble tracing the sound. Then I noticed the l/h manifold was glowing red hot, between the 4 branch & the lambda sensor. Not good ,so I shut it down, left it a while but it refused to restart & the edge was starting to go off the battery. I tried it again in the morning, got it from the garage to the drive & that was as far as it went. I tried a mates flow meter but that wasn`t it. I thought of the ecu, I rang Paul at PPC & he said if I wanted to I could bite the bullet & let him have the ecu to have it looked at. I got it back today, no faults, bugger. I tried running it with the lambda`s disconnected, no change, it ran but very very badly as before. I have considered changing them over to see if the manifold glows on the right instead ?? but I have not got one off yet, tomorrow maybe. Meanwhile I thought I would put it to you guys to see if you can suggest anything, sorry for long post & thanks in advance........... Andy

[pjac67]

Sounds like it could be your cat/precat breaking down.

[Mark_S_24]

Hi,

If the exhaust is glowing I'm sure that mean that there is petrol being burnt inside the exhaust. Which could be HT leads, Distributor cap etc etc.
First I'd check the condition of the spark plug (obviously you'll see if any had loose leads) and check the HT Leads aren't melting against the exhaust & shorting out.
& check the leads are all secure in the distributor cap, then check inside the cap for wear.

That would be my starting point, I'm sure someone with better knowledge will be along shortly.

Mark

[hot metal]

All the plugs leads & distributor cap are quite recent, so should be in good shape.Will double check though

Can anyone confirm that precat theory, the car is a 93 model,soooooooo.

[ChilliWhizz]

pjac67 said:

Sounds like it could be your cat/precat breaking down.

Makes much sense, can't think of any other reason... it's significantly overheating exactly where a precat is... what else could cause it to glow red at that exact point? Twas me, I'd remove the Y piece and investigate, many have successfully drilled out/removed the precats without having to take the manifolds off.... There's a few threads on doing this, search for precat removal, should throw something up....

Chilli

[hot metal]

ChilliWhizz said:

Makes much sense, can't think of any other reason... it's significantly overheating exactly where a precat is... what else could cause it to glow red at that exact point? Twas me, I'd remove the Y piece and investigate, many have successfully drilled out/removed the precats without having to take the manifolds off.... There's a few threads on doing this, search for precat removal, should throw something up....

Chilli

Sounds like fun thanks for the post. Somebody at work suggested this to me on Friday, I dismissed it.

[l6rth]

I removed my pre cats leaving the manifolds on and it took about 3hrs all in, one tip I have is use a long auger bit instead of an masonry bit in the drill as the auger bit pulls the material out instead of pushing it in. Good luck.

Rob

[hot metal]

l6rth said:

I removed my pre cats leaving the manifolds on and it took about 3hrs all in, one tip I have is use a long auger bit instead of an masonry bit in the drill as the auger bit pulls the material out instead of pushing it in. Good luck.

Rob

Do I need loosen off the exhaust to remove the Y piece ?, all the bolts are off but it will not go forward enough to slide off the exhaust, hits the chassis first.

[Hedgehopper]

Yes, it will hit the chassis first, but as the end of the exhaust pipe has a flexible section, with luck you will be able to wiggle it free. You could, if necessary, remove the bolt that goes through the bracket on the exhaust pipe into the block.

[s p a c e m a n]

Try just undoing the bolt that holds the front of the exhaust onto the engine, it may give you enough wriggle room if you're lucky, I have to loosen all of the centre bolts and move my exhaust back an inch to get my Y piece off though, mine has no flexi pipe in it.

I don't like the thought of drilling out the precats whilst the manifolds are on the car, is there much chance of debris falling past open exhaust valves? I'd do it without hesitation on a few hundred quids worth of runabout, would make a proper job of it and change all of the manifold gaskets/clean everything up if I was doing it on my chim though. I'm guessing if you still have a cat in the Y piece you'll need to properly hoover out the manifolds if you're not removing them otherwise anything left will just keep blasting the main cat.

[jamienshelly]

s p a c e m a n said:

Try just undoing the bolt that holds the front of the exhaust onto the engine, it may give you enough wriggle room if you're lucky, I have to loosen all of the centre bolts and move my exhaust back an inch to get my Y piece off though, mine has no flexi pipe in it.

I don't like the thought of drilling out the precats whilst the manifolds are on the car, is there much chance of debris falling past open exhaust valves? I'd do it without hesitation on a few hundred quids worth of runabout, would make a proper job of it and change all of the manifold gaskets/clean everything up if I was doing it on my chim though. I'm guessing if you still have a cat in the Y piece you'll need to properly hoover out the manifolds if you're not removing them otherwise anything left will just keep blasting the main cat.

After removing the Pre-cats in situ, hoover then manifolds as best as possible, then put a pillow-case over the manifolds and start up to clear the dust, then double check for large bits then refit 'y'peice
job done

[hot metal]

I have no flexi pipe either & getting the manifolds off without a double garage & a 4 post lift seems damn near out of the question.Add to this I get a little claustrophobic under the car. There is a Formula 1 service centre not more than 300yds from my house ,I have considered pushing it there to get the manifolds off. Run out of time & patience for today

[s p a c e m a n]

You can get to a lot of the manifold bolts from on top of the car if you have the right sized spanners and some patience. Feed the spanner through the gaps, hold the spanner onto the bolt with a finger and use the other hand to move it. It's not exactly easy to do them from under the car anyway so it's not like you're fiddling about for 5 minutes when it would take 20 seconds from underneath. There's only a couple that I do from underneath (I think that it's the 2nd from front that can't be done) and if you do remove the manifold you can slot the holes so that they're easier to remove next time

[Chuffmeister]

I manage to most of the manifold bolts from the top; however, if yours haven't been off for a while, they maybe very difficult to shift. I actually found that a shorter, open-ended spanner is better for most of the lower bolts, when accessing them from above. I also attach a long piece of string to one end, which helps retrieval of the spanner when dropped and also helps you position your hand first whilst partially manouvring the spanner with the string.

Make sure you disconnect your battery first!

[hot metal]

Thanks ,good to know, the bolts are all quite easy to shift, the ones I have got to at least, will probably give it another go.

[s p a c e m a n]

Not teaching you to suck eggs but undo the bottom ones first, if you undo the top then all of the weight is put onto the bottoms ones and make them twice as difficult to turn.

[QBee]

If you are taking it off the car to decat, you will need to put it in a vice while you hammer it out. You can hit it pretty hard without damaging the manifold itself. A long drill, the type you use for drilling right through walls, and a jemmy type crowbar, are useful. Progress will be slow until you get right throught it, then it speeds up.

If you don't want to decat, you can usually buy a replacement manifold for about £75. I would offer you the one I have, but it's drivers side. This pair are on EBay for £130 at the moment - put the reference 151464493885 into EBay search.

I am near Newark if you want to compare noisy Chimaeras when yours is fixed.

Edited by QBee on Sunday 23 November 21:16

[hot metal]

QBee said:

If you are taking it off the car to decat, you will need to put it in a vice while you hammer it out. You can hit it pretty hard without damaging the manifold itself. A long drill, the type you use for drilling right through walls, and a jemmy type crowbar, are useful. Progress will be slow until you get right throught it, then it speeds up.

If you don't want to decat, you can usually buy a replacement manifold for about £75. I would offer you the one I have, but it's drivers side. This pair are on EBay for £130 at the moment - put the reference 151464493885 into EBay search.

I am near Newark if you want to compare noisy Chimaeras when yours is fixed.

Edited by QBee on Sunday 23 November 21:16

Thanks QBee, I would like that, mines already pretty loud, more so than the 5litre Griff I had previously, don`t know what a de-cat will do for it.I`m quite keen to get the engine bay temps down though, even on a summers day having the roof down is not much better, the heat from the engine just gets drawn into the interior.
On a different track I was wondering if I will need special gaskets for the Y piece or can I use sealant, it`s a 93 pre-serp so the Y piece has bolts & not clamps.

Edited by hot metal on Sunday 23 November 22:10

[s p a c e m a n]

Do those ones have cats?

[QBee]

All the current EBay ones are the later clamped type.

Might be interesting to check what's in the manifold. The car would need to have at least a main cat if it is post 1992.