Ok was wheeling yesterday and got into some water my jeep died got pulled out, pulled the plugs no water in the cylinders checked the intake manifold no water in there so put the jeep back together and started it up. Well it started fine but right away I noticed something was a lil off. My exhaust is cut off right after the cat so I have no muffler or pipe after the cat, usually its pretty loud, well not no more its almost quieter then a stock exhaust. So we drove around a lil while in the woods and it seemed ok. Got back up to the parking lot hooked up the trailer with the bike and quad and headed home after eating and letting the jeeps rest for awhile. Starter fine still really quiet but took off ok bout five minutes down the road the fun started. Seemed to keep looking power and it would surge back and fourth then pick up again. Well bout 20 min of drivin it over heated due to runnin at 3 grand at 45mph cuz I was losing power. Let it cool down didn't boil over just got real close to red. Drove another 10 min and then all power was gone went from 50 mph to 5 mph in an instant then my exhaust sounded like a jet engine when I gave it gas so I looked underneath and reved it a bit only to see a 2 ft. Flame shooting out of the exhaust. Not back fire either it was a steady flame. So we shut it down and got someone to come get the trailer. 2 hrs later they show up and I try to start the jeep (it wouldn't start after I shut it down after the fire issue) it started and ran fine again just still real quiet. Got home check for compression on all the cylinders, seemed good . Plugs all good and firing. So I let the jeep sit again the a couple hrs later I drove to taxi bell and the power loss and surging started again. I do kno that when it starts doing the surging and power loss if I shut the jeep off and turn of back on it starts out all good again. But the power loss get so bad from a dead stop floored it barely moves until it sputters a bit and gets goin but takes a good 100+ ft to get goin 5-10mph. My only guess now is possibly the ICU, but that wouldn't make my chopped exhaust go from stock car loud or caddy quiet..any ideas?? I also wonder if my cat got water into it and is now clogging up..I need help don't have a lot of money to pay a shop so throw me ideas please..

 

Forgot to say its a 2000 xj btw

 

your cat is clogged you need a new one or just cut it off

 

you beat me to it

 

try loosen it at the header, it will be loud, butcif it runs fine then, your cat is proberly all full of mud.

good luck and let us hear how it went

 

Thanks for the advice..it was the cat chopped it off today and runs fine