Hello all. I recently purchased a 96 accord ex 4 cyl. as a winter commuting car. When I bought it, I knew the radiator had a leak, however was able to get it home without it overheating. Once home the engine bay was soaked with antifreeze, presumably from the leak, which i later found right by the radiator cap. Once home, It then began running horribly, and the check engine light was flashing intermitently.

I just replaced the radiator and that issue is solved, however the problem continues. while the engine was operating at normal temperature, i noticed the catalytic converter started glowing a bright red-hot orange. I immediately turned it off and haven't started it since.

Thinking the cat may be bad, i scanned it, however came up with codes
P0302, P0304 and P1300, all misfiring codes. No cat code shown. I first thought I would need to replace the cat, but without showing a faulty car code, I clearly don't want to if it doesn't need replacing.

My question is would a cat act like that, get extremely hot, if the cylinders are misfiring? and if I find out and repair the misfiring issue, would the cat work properly again? or is the red-hot cat a sign it's bad? my next question would be why wouldn't it throw a code if it's bad?

Need your help ASAP. Thank you!!

 

cat is getting too hot because of misfiring. did you bleed the cooling system? check for blown head gasket.