Glowing Cat.???

[|WYG|SS]

my friend has a 94 f150 5.0 and about a week ago he had gooten the engine rebuilt. it is bored .40 over. wwhen we went to put the engine back in yesterday everything went fine until we went to start it and found that the pollution or smog pump siezed up so we got a new one. it ran fine after we got the new pump in, it ran a little rough so we adjusted tghe idle a little so it would run smooth. so we had it running and we were adding transmission fluid, we didnt have enough so we shut it off and ran to store then we came back and started truck and it ran a little rough. so then after we got the tranny full him and his uncle took it for a ride to see if it would help the rough idle, so they went down the road and when they came back the cat was glowing red. before they took it they had steped on the gas a little with the truck in gear and it was back fireing. they have the timeing set at 8 degrees btdc. is that the right degrees? could it be bad o2 sensor from sitting 3 weeks with carbon on it? it would great iff i could get an answer, thanks.

[Greenblurr93]

glowing cat usually means thats its clogged.

[rhandwor]

I agree in my area a junk yard isn't allowed to sell them. You will probably have to buy a new one. You could look on ebay.

[|WYG|SS]

found out it was the fireing order. he had a late model 94 so he had to have a 95 fireing order. it doesnt get red hot any more it may be a little pluged but it will unplug eventually.

[fordman01]

The cat will unplug eventually by blowing apart. I had a 90 f250 and the cat would clog up sending the rpm to red line then build up enough pressure to blow it out. Then the rpms went back down. It would do it every could of minutes. I would recomend to start saving for a new cat. Mine was about 700 bucks.

[birar]

put a different cat in its junk u will fry the rings outa that engine trust me ive done it

[rhandwor]

Catallic converter warehouse 1-888-878-3203 has a direct fit for a 95 F-150 302 for $264.89 I assume you have to pay shipping.
This is a lot cheaper than $750.00.

[dfordski]

Mine blew up doing 70 coming down the back side of the Grapevine. It separated at the side seams but there was enough downward force to lift the rear tires off the pavement. I thought a semi had overheated its brakes and rear ended me. I pulled over and looked under the truck and what was left of the Cat. was white hot. This was 3 weeks after I paid a State Smog Diag. & Repair Station $280 to get it to pass smog (unable to determine cause of inability to pass after keeping it 3 days). This was why I started researching OBD's & Computer controled engine management. I decided if state trained and licensed Techs where that clueless then the average repair garage probibly used a special emmission control diagnostics "Dartboard" w/ the names of components written on the board. Some probably switched to "Phsycic 8 balls" after customers started asking why there always seemed be a dart game going on in their parts department. Anyway, I wanted to make sure I never expeirienced anything like that again. I since then determined the cause to be 4 years of useing hi octane fuel in my stock 300ci which are not designed for its use in. This causes partially detonated fuel residual deposits to build up on the combustion chambers surfaces and then Wicks up fuel that enters the chamber via the injectors. I had a compamy gas card and I thought higher octane=better quality & higher combustive capability when in fact, it's exactly opposite. Because 87 octane outsells the higher octanes it is less likly to experience storage contamination prior to sale & has the highest overall combustion capabilities for transforming into horsepower. The higher the octane, the more controlled and restricted its combustion is. The purpose of octane is specificly to increase delay for the moment for ignition until later in the compression stroke of engines whith a higher rates of compression. High compression engines have a high rate of compression by default, however when higher octanes are used in low compression engines (most stock normally asperated engines) specicly not designed for use in, ignition delays to the point that only partial ignition occures and deposits begin to build up on the suffaces of the combustion chamber. Piston head,chamber dome, valve surface. This buildup cotinues to artifically reduce C.I. displacement in the cylinders with causes the engines rate of compression to be increased and how low compression engines get hooked on higher octanes to the point that thay can no longer operate on regular w/o pre/post detonation. The PCM has been aware of this but OBD1's are ill prepared and OBD2's are only marginally better able to adjust to a variable that it wasn't designded to deal with w/o program modification. Anyway, the end result is the engine function at a 14.7:1 air to fuel ratio becomes a distant memory as does the ability to use 87 then 89 octanes and the amount of undetonater fuel in a gasious state reaching the Cat increases until first it becomes toxic and usless, then begins an internal meltdown w/ an increasing amount of exhaust backpressure disruptive to proper valve function and eventually a potential insindiary device w/ unpredictable moment of detonation if the backpressure condition doesn't result in its replacement first. The only way a low compression engine can use a higher octane w/o this condition from occuring is reprogram/chiping or at least its rate of compression it intentionally increased by a fairly agressive additional advance in timing. Personally I think to fastest way to determine the general overall health condition of a stock low compression engine and how well it has been maintained is to see how tollarent it is to addition degrees of timing advancement with 87 octane before it sounds like someone thew a handful of maebles in a clothes dryer.Some can't run stock 10BTDC w/o ping, some can't get past 12BTDC w/ copper plugs. Some can run at 18BTC w/ side gaped coppers or x2 Plat. Finewires stock gaped and no sign of ping.. I reciently started side gaping and increased my advance to 16BTDC resulting in a slight increase in overall acceleration & +2 MPGs. I really became aware of the differance in combustion between octane rates when I accidentally put 91 octane in my truck(87' 302 w/77K) instead of 87 last week and it couldn't deal with it, not even an attempt to fire. I put 87 in the other tank and swithed over and it acted like nothing happened and fired right up.

[dfordski]

they have the timeing set at 8 degrees btdc. is that the right degrees? !0 BTDC is stock. You might try bumpin it up a couple after you replace the Cat, decontaminate the o2 w/ Electronic contact cleaner and Clear your KAM to rebiuld the Learned adaptive strat. tables.