Marcho Polo

When I got home from work yesterday, I noticed a smell like something burning under the hood.... kinda like plastic or oil dripped on the exhaust. I pop the hood and the drivers side pre-cat has a little smoke coming off it. I think that maybe oil dripped on it from the rear of the motor cuz the intake is leaking a little. But it doesn't smell like oil, it smells like plastic. Besides the smell, I don't see anything melting on the outside of the cat, just smoke coming off it. The car runs great, no loss of power, but maybe the cat is going bad?

Mike263

I had a similar experience last year. On very close examination it WAS plastic burning off. I had apparenetly run over an empty plastic shopping bag and it got hung up on the pre-cat. Most of it melted off - the remainder smoked for a while and then was gone.

scorp508

Broken piece or not, use it as an excuse to get new front y-pipe w/o cats. :D

War Machine

It could be plastic. The previous owner to mine used the black plastic wire looms for the spark plug wires. :smash: :smash:
It took me over a year to burn off the stuff that had melted onto the exhaust pipes. It smelled like burning plastic for a long time. :crazy: :U

Did you get under there and see if you had any plastic melting?

-John

Marcho Polo

Well, from the top of the pre-cat, I don't see anything, but I need to crawl under there and look. It still stinks today, but ran great on the way to work! The car sure does like these 50 degree mornings after a summer of 100 degree days!

XtremeVette

your sure right about these 50 degree days Craig....mine is the same way!!!....hey Iam getting rid of my pre-cats over the winter/spring....I will let you know what the outcome is.....

to me those little suckers just add more heat to the inside of my car.....can imagine what it is doing under the hood...and performance wise.....

I just hope by removing them, I don't set any codes....and it improves my exhaust sound....I want that nice loud popping sound...like snowmans car!!!.....or Blakes...right now, mine is more of a bassy low boomy growl....needs to be up'd an octave.......

talk to ya later...jeff

can't wait to see that vid of your car in action..... :cool:


[Modified by XtremeVette, 10:50 AM 10/26/2001]

SunCr

Did the same on mine once or twice. Ran over a plastic grocery bag, spent a good hour scraping it off. I only ask for paper now.

Aggravated4life

The Y pipe with no cats is a good mod..and didnt set any codes on my 86.
If yours are alittle clogged,youll feel a difference after the swap.

Hope all that smell is is plastic,not wires.
On the drivers side though, the purple O2 wire sometimes can drop close to the pipe.

Marcho Polo

At lunch today I went home and still smell the burn.... so I pop the hood and look on top of the cat, see nothing (kinda hard to see in this pic)




Then I look underneath and.... Bingo! it's oil dripping from somewhere....





So I guess I need to pull the manifold and fix the leaky rear seal. It's pretty dirty back there and I've known that I'll need to do this sometime anyway.

SunCr

You'd think if it was coming from the top of the motor, it would be on top of the CAT too. Did you have a recent lube? Might be some excess grease from the ball joints or it might be a piece of tar or asphalt (see if there's any in the tire tread, fender well, etc). I'd clean it off with some brake parts or air intake cleaner and see if it comes back (or just to pinpoint it further).

GlockLT4

:yesnod: :yesnod:

KYVette90

Mine was doing that also. I replaced the intake gaskets and it quit leaking, and since the pre-cat was dirty, I just removed them. Much better sound and performance.