gtcochran

So this weekend I decided to put on a few engine mods to increase my torque, horsepower, and hopefully my gas mileage. I put on an Jeep Firepower ignition kit which includes a new distributor cap, plug wires, and distributor coil. New Bosch Platinum spark plugs and an Power Aid Throttle body spacer. The Jeep was able to start up but it idled low and the RPM's would lag whe ever I would give it any gas. After I stopped it, it wouldn't be able to start for a few minutes and there was the tell tale smell of gas in the air. I'm thinking that since it is a 130k mile vehicle with the original Catalytic converter that the raw fuel ight have gummed it up and it is time to get a new one but the question is why was my gas/air mixture so rich? I took of the throttle spacer to see if that would fix the issue but no dice. I banged on the Cat for a few minutes and that seemed to alleviate the symptoms for a while. Any ideas?

BlazinTehCherokee

This start before or after new plugs, wires, and distributor cap?

gtcochran

I did all of the work and then this happened. I took one of the plugs out after it wouldn't start and it was wet, leading me to believe that it was hydro-locked, thus preventing it to start.

BlazinTehCherokee

Sure all the plug wires are correct on the cap. Make sure its not out of time. Make sure all the plugs are sparking.

When mine was stumbling, one of my plug wires went bad and was preventing it from revving, it started and didn't sound too bad at idle though. Easiest way to check is to pull each of your plug wires off the SPARKPLUG and listen for a change in idle, when you find one that doesn't change, that's your problem.

gtcochran

I tried that. I'm pretty sure that it is not an issue with the firing order. I put my hand over my exhaust to see if it was sucking in at all, thus indicating a firing issue, and it was blowing the whole time. Interesting though was the face that it was blowing out black flakes of odd crap. Alomst like my jeep has TB. That made me think that the issue was with the converter.

HCCAFan

I don't think the exhaust will suck in. The problem is most likely in something you did. You can put the stock parts back on one at a time until you find it.

gtcochran

Yeah, I already did that also. I went back to stock configuration and the issue persisted. it seems like the addition of the new parts caused an issue somewhere else that won't be fixed by simply changing the parts back. The reaseon that I believe that the issue is with the Cat is because while trying to remove the converter I ended up banging on the converter with a rubber mallet for about 10 minutes. Though I was not able to remove the converter, the jeep was able to start and run normally for a while though I do occasionally it does idle and lag from time to time.

HCCAFan

So you changed all the plugs back to stock? I have had cracked plug porcelain do what you are saying.

gtcochran

I have not tried that. I will check that tonight.

freegdr

you might have broken the cat in side by beating on it causin pieces to come loose clogging it

93gc40

Have you check to see if there are any stored codes, CEL doesn't have to be lit for there to be a trouble code. I'm thinking bad/dirty injectors or failing O2 sensor(s) or bad TPS. If the cat wasn't part of the problem before it might be now that you beat on it, they tend to be senstive to shock.

gtcochran

Just checked the codes and there were no pending or stored codes. It does seem to be running a little better though the mix does still seem to be high (I can smell gas once I start it up). I also ran it up to 4000 rpm and it didn't stutter or stumble so I'm pretty certain that she is not misfiring so I'm thinking that the computer hasn't readjusted yet. I'm gonna take it in tomorrow and see what a tech can figure out and see if I do indeed need to get a new Cat.

gtcochran

Alright, it now seems to be working great. I guess that the 14 computer just took a long time to reconfigure to the new intake settings.