fujiwara takumi

'89 rex - autocrosser.

I parked the car for 3 days while I took my spec miata to road america. Today I picked it up, started it, pulled it out, and then drove home with it.

On the way to the I there was some punk kid irritating me and we ended up playing games with each other. I was probably doing close to or over 100mph.

I pulled onto the interstate under power and was floating along around 80mph when the car started losing power. The motor was still running but it was as if I ran out of gas. It would run again as the tach dropped in 1k increments. I.e. i was running at 5-6k when the motor kills, when the tach drifts to 4k the car clicks back on for a few moments, then off again. id downshift and get it back, then it would fall and the same thing.

I was able to coast/sorta for about 1/2-1 mile and work my way from the fast lane to an off ramp when she went dead. i coasted to the side of the road, i tried popping the clutch and the car would talk but not turn over.

when i stopped i popped the hood. there was a great amount of smoke coming from between the firewall and intake manifold. I laid down on the ground and noticed my catalytic converter wsa cherry red.

I tried to start the car a few more times and it grumbled and popped, there were little metal flakes coming out of the tail pipe, (im pretty sure now this is pieces of my cat)

I had the car towed home and pulled the exhaust from the header back. The cat has a hole in it about the size of a soda cap, and a lot of melted pieces of hunny-comb. It does not look like pieces of bearing or rings or anything like that.

So then i tried to start the car but the battery was pretty tired. I put a 10amp charger on it for an hour and it still wont pop over. I have not checked spark yet but I can smell a lot of fuel. The strong smell is probably attributed to no cat/exhaust right now, but the car has been running a bit rich and has a bit of blow by, which I would directly attribute to the cat melt down.

that doesnt solve the issue at hand, however. Why is the car not starting?

I recently installed a new ignition coil as mine was out of spec, and the car has run well. My key began getting stuck in the ignition and the car was being quirky so i replaced the main relay a few weeks ago too. Wires are 1 year old. Fuel tank is full

any guesses?

SlapSmak

Generally, Cats dont suddenly get a hole in them unless something inpacts the screens. I can see the screens coming loose, but not a hole. have you checked compression? Sounds like a ring cracked or valve dropped and a piece went throught the cat. No compresson in a cylinder, no start. Start by checking compression. It will require no teardown and go from there...

b18c4g

Check Spark before compression, its a whole lot easier. If that is good, then yeah, check compression. As far as your cat having honeycomb broken pieces broken off, that is probably due to the age of the cat and also it being cherry red.

fujiwara takumi

sparks clean, just verified. Compression tester is 100miles away and sears is closed so I guess ill check compression tomorrow AM.

Rexxer

sounds like your cat is clogged, unbolt it and it should start back up.

crazykamper

whatever it is, good luck!

fujiwara takumi

exhaust is off the car, it isnt the cat. the was my first thought. im going to check compression and check that damn timing belt in the am. im wondering if she didnt snap (134k on the original)

fujiwara takumi

guess i found the problem. compression:

180, 150, 150, 90 (that's from distributor towards the driver side, respectively)