bad cat converter?

[chinslip]

I bought a 94 Del Sol sohc 3 years ago with a bit of a oil burning problem that was traced back to a pluged up pcv valve tube just recently. The problem has since completely gone. The engine however is noisy...rough sounding. I have a civic of the same year, same engine and transmission...and this thing whines up smoothly, quickly and quitely. But the Del Sol sounds rough when I stomp on the gas and doesn't seem to have much power (less then the civic). I've since done a mini-me swap with a Z6 head. Compression is now 210psi...and it still sounds rough and less power then the civic. Could the cat converter be cloged up from all the oil burning before?

[Geo VP]

Originally posted by chinslip:
I bought a 94 Del Sol sohc 3 years ago with a bit of a oil burning problem that was traced back to a pluged up pcv valve tube just recently. The problem has since completely gone. The engine however is noisy...rough sounding. I have a civic of the same year, same engine and transmission...and this thing whines up smoothly, quickly and quitely. But the Del Sol sounds rough when I stomp on the gas and doesn't seem to have much power (less then the civic). I've since done a mini-me swap with a Z6 head. Compression is now 210psi...and it still sounds rough and less power then the civic. Could the cat converter be cloged up from all the oil burning before?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">What else has been done/replaced on the engine (say plugs, wires, fuel filter, etc. recently and what are the miles on the engine)? I take it that the valves have been adjusted to specs.

Geo
President
Team Sol of Washington

[chinslip]

New...ignition wires, plugs, dizzy cap and rotor, fuel filter, air filter, water pump, timming belt. Valve lash re-adjusted again today with no changes to performance and noisy engine. 200 000K on the engine. Cylinder walls looked fantastik and compression is high at 210psi. I can't understand the poor performance and rough sounding noise. I parked the civic next to the Del Sol with both hoods open and idling. Rev up the civic then the sol with a defenate noise difference. Civic revs up quick and smooth but Sol sounds rough. Civic has same mileage [img]mad.gif[/img]

[Geo VP]

Originally posted by chinslip:
New...ignition wires, plugs, dizzy cap and rotor, fuel filter, air filter, water pump, timming belt. Valve lash re-adjusted again today with no changes to performance and noisy engine. 200 000K on the engine. Cylinder walls looked fantastik and compression is high at 210psi. I can't understand the poor performance and rough sounding noise. I parked the civic next to the Del Sol with both hoods open and idling. Rev up the civic then the sol with a defenate noise difference. Civic revs up quick and smooth but Sol sounds rough. Civic has same mileage [img]mad.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmmm...OK, so it was making a lot of noise before you did the mini-me, so that should eliminate the head, exhaust, intake and injectors as the problem as you changed them when doing the swap right? Did you use your old distributor when doing the mini-me?

Geo
President
Team Sol of Washington

[chinslip]

I changed the dizzy cap not the distributor internals. The distributor was from the Z6 head and I kept it on there. And the engine does not make a lot of noise! It only sounds rougher than my civic and less HP. I was thinking about the cat being semi clogged from the plugged PCV tube. I don't know what else to think. One more thing...when the engine is cold it sorta misses at idle. I can hear a split second miss every 3 or 4 seconds. I'm not getting any CELs. I was getting a CEL right after the mini-me that I traced back to a bad air temp sensor...but been clear since then. THX for the help

[Geo VP]

OK, on the missing it could be the coil is going south (getting weak) as you've replaced the rest of it (may want to check the plugs for fouling) or some problem with the IAC. As for checking the cat, just take the down pipe off at the front of thhe cat and with a flash light see if you can see through it, if you can it should be ok.

That's all I can think of right now.

Geo
President
Team Sol of Washington

[chinslip]

IAC was changed with a known good one and plugs were checked and were found prestine. As for the coil will consider getting a new one but the problem existed before the mini-me. THX

[BiffStroganoffsky]

Doesn't sound like the cat but you should be able to check that real quick by disconnecting the exhaust prior to the cat to see if that makes it run smoother. Just my two cents.

Better yet if you could get a straight pipe to replace the cat and drive around a bit.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 10, 2006 01:07 PM: Message edited by: BiffStroganoffsky ]</font>