Let's see.... I've been reading the forums here for quite awhile.... as you know, I have a 95 escort, w/ approx. 175k miles.... all of the problems started when... someone (I believe my ex) put grass in the exhaust pipe.... I was unaware of this and drove it for about a week... when a friend let me know.... during that time... it had blown my exhaust manifold from the engine itself... I didn't know why or have money to fix it... my only car... I had to drive it... being that the manifold was blown off and leaking hot exhaust fumes into the engine compartment.... that melted my spark plug wires... the excess pressure also blew out the valve cover gasket.... the car was basically bleeding oil... the plugs became fouled out due to low spark from the wires... the 02 sensor fouled... and from there it continued to go downhill.... one day on the way to school... the car died.... I managed to fool around with it for 20 mins or so... and got it running.... I made it back home, trying to avoid a tow bill... that's when my mom decided to help me out.... she bought me a new valve cover gasket, new plug wires, and a new catalyctic converter ( we thought maybe it was clogged, it had never been changed)... I took it to a friend's shop and we were going to weld the new cat. in... when disconnecting the exhaust pipe from the manifold, one of the bolts rounded off in the manifold... So I had to buy another manifold.... my friend was kinda upset and wouldn't help me after that.... then no one would weld it for me b/c I didn't buy it from them... so I took it back and bought a direct-fit cat. I put that on myself... with all that done... I took the car for a test drive(>1 mile round-trip)... and the new cat was glowing red.... that made me mad... I put the car back up on ramps and worked for the next week... I cleaned the whole intake (air and fuel)... checked belts( accessory drive belt is cracked but still working for now) and timing seemed to be fine... I got it all put back together Monday... waited until Tuesday (for permatex to dry) and drove it... with the exhaust still disconnected... and the cat is still turning red... I also have the main vacuum connector is disconnected... it was very hard to get connected... I couldn't get the bolt on it to thread into the new headers.... could anyone give any suggestions how to... & thanks... I'll keep you posted... P.S. I am looking to install a cd player into the car... I need to know what wires do what... I already have the diagram for the cd player but need one for the car itself...

if the cat glowed red, it is now junk. as for the cd player, what i usually do is use a test light to find your voltage wires, hook them up to get the cd player working, then use trial and error to get the speaker wires.... using balance control to make sure you are hooking the right outputs to the right speakers.... you won't blow up the radio or anything as long as you have already isolated the power wires( which you will do when you wire the cd player up for power)

if the cat glowed red, it is now junk. agree'd, it sounds like you still have a jam in your exhaust if you are still experiencing heat problems. try taking the whole exhaust off and putting water through it, drying it out and puting it back on. i could be wrong though but something is generating alot of heat. you may need to do some engine work.

I think i remember someone saying O2 sensor? If i recall correctly, in a previous thread, months ago, someone had this same problem (cat glowing red) and I believe it was either an O2 sensor or the timing was off slightly. I could be wrong, I'm not sure. Wouldn't hurt to check though, right?

yes, thanks for your input... the escort has died since, I believe to an intake manifold gasket that blew out.... but about the o2 sensor... I had cleaned that (use a high-temp torch to turn cherry red and burn off build up)... I would fix this car, but someone broke in (busted window) and stole about $600 worth of stereo equipment... so even because of little parts, this car isn't really worth fixing... b/c of the other damage...