You said the magic word: "wash"! Don't worry, you've just got a bit of water down in the sparkplug wells. Water creates electrical path, so the spark is weak because most of the charge never reaches the plug, thus fuel is not completely burned, and the Catalytic Converter overheats due to eating up the raw hydrocarbons. To fix, just pull the boots, and blow out the water with some compressed air, or a straw. Just in case too, a hair dryer never hurts either. Daub a bit of that spark plug conductive goop on, and replace the boots back onto the plugs. But make sure that the boots themselves seat fully onto wells. If not, water gets in, and will cause this exact problem. And of course, this is also why you want to use wires meant for the PRV block. They're designed to keep water out by having those boots installed. In anycase, all of this is in the archives of anyone would like more details. One thing I don't know about though is if you'll have to replace the cat. I don't don't know just how much "damage" it can take. If not melted, it could just simply get clogged. I've seen gas additives in the store that claim to clean out cats of excess deposites, but I'm still scratching my head as to just how in the world they work.... In any case, if you're concerned about it, perhaps it's time to check up on local regulations, and see about replacing that cat w/a straight pipe anyways... -Robert vin 6585 "X" --- In dmcnews@xxxx, "Stian Birkeland" <delorean@xxxx> wrote: > Today I drove my last trip in my DeLorean (this year, that is!) > I'm putting it away for winter storage. > > However, when I parked up, having taken the car to the carwash and back to my garage and with normal engine temperatures, driven for around 15 minutes, I discovered that the cat was glowing red! This *might* have been a very close fire, but I'm puzzled to what to look for? Why did the cat act like this? I have never experienced this before...let me also at that it sputtered when I drove it, but I think that's mainly bad spark plugs and/or condensation because of the winter climate we have here right now. > > Still - why did the cat glow red...I'm sure it was a couple of hundred degrees down there in the engine bay :-( > > Any suggestions welcome > > Stian Birkeland > Norway > > VIN # 06759 > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]