driftnby

I just replaced my headgasket and she ran fine for the first couple hour. At first we were scared cause there was smoke coming out the exhaust and a ton under load. After checking to make sure it wasn't draing coolant or oil still into the block we decided to let it run and steam the excess coolant and oil outy of the mufflers. After 40+/- minutes of idle i went to drive her home and she was bogging like crazy. No acceleration at all. Got her towed, re soldered the esm, gapped the plugs to .35 and tried resetting the idle mixture. Take out the back up, turn it on and rev it to 3k until both fans come on, then idle her for five. Right aroun normal op. temp. there was smoke coming from my shifter area, like between the seats. The cat under the car was glowing! Could this have been my powerloss issue? I think the coolant and oil charred the crap out of my exhaust and the s can't breath? What should i do?

xviper

Maybe you'd like to give people some details instead of popping a bunch of questions that have no relevence to anything.
Why did you just replace your headgasket?
ESM? Something you're not telling us?
Gapped plugs to .35? Why?
Resetting the idle mix?

I'm assuming you have a Comptech S/C but you tell us nothing about whether or not it's stock or altered. In this case, this should be in Forced Induction where it might just make sense to more people.

Slows2k

Considering nomal converter temps can be 1500deg F, I'm not so sure it's the cause of your problem.

Give us some more details like xviper has suggested.

dhayner

Maybe the glowing cat is normal, but on another car, it came from a super-rich mixture. The excess fuel was being burned in the cat. Your comment about smoke, a ton under load, supports this theory. Was it black smoke?

driftnby

Sorry about the lack of info. I am supercharged with a comptech. I finished the install last sunday and the s was faster than anything! I drove around locally for a little that night and the next moring on the way to the dyno. My replaced coolant line from the head to the intake manifold popped and i overheated. (Never use "high temp" hoses from pep boys.) I posted here in uth becase i was curious about the cat. If any mod thinks i'll get a better response in FI move me! My dad found an article talking about coolant, 02 sensors and cats. Apparently the silicone that's in coolant doesn't react well with 02 sesors. It fries or cloggs them, causing the car to run rich and eat up the cat. My friend's s/c eclipse was running excessivley rich trying to tune it and he ate through his cat. My theory is the coolant got to the sensor, sensor died(maybe both?) and cat is melted inside with no flow and running too rich. I'm prolly just gonna put on a highflow cat, a new o2 sensor or two and cross my fingers. The smoke by the way was white. a grip of white smoke. a kinda steamy smoke at idle then a thick smoke under load. The smoke stopped after leaving with the bogging car. It was at my friend's house for a week and the only time i had to wrench was from like 8pm-12am, so i'd rather just get it out of the driveway and towed at this point. Loke i said, the car was slow, i assumed a vaccum leak, but i'd check at the gas station. B4 i got to the gas station, the smoke stopped coming out the mufflers, and for the last .5 mile before the gas station, it was only coming out of one muffler.

xviper

Coolant should not be getting into the exhaust. I think it's getting into the combustion chamber somehow. I would suspect your head gasket job was not done correctly.

driftnby

The coolant was already in the exhaust. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start after the overheat and i put in coolant and let her cool down. We towed it and when the tow truck driver backed up and stopped, coolant leaked out of the exhaust. That is when i realized i was getting blow by due to warpage or melted headgasket. The coolant got in there from me cranking it trying to start after she cooled down and was still in there after the rebuild. The head was warped and milled and back on with 180-185 compression on the back two and 150 on the front. (I had all the plugs out and cranked it while in each one for a couple seconds) No coolant drain though from my radiator and oil level maintained. This was from 20 miles before i got it towed. I could have had a huge fire hazard!.

xviper

You know, all of these little missing pieces of information could have been posted right from the beginning, instead of having us guess at stuff and seeing it filter through little by little. I'm done here. No point in trying to help someone who can't put all the facts down all at once.

driftnby

Hey. I'm trying to get through this as painless as possible. This is the first forum i've ever activley participated in. Sorry if my communication skills suck. I am trying to give as much info as possible, i'm just thinking amile a minute. I check the posts constantly so if i can clear anything up to help you help me, please ask.
I just cut the cat in half to take out the burnt filter and am about to replace the 2 o2 sensors and see how she does. The filter was all loose and sideways in there!

Squeezer

this isn't related to your overheating, but did you have the head planed before you reinstalled it?