Re: Red-glowing cat!

["therealdmcvegas" <DMCVegas@xxxx>]

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]