[Yaemish]

I opened it up twice on the highway the other day and I could immediately smell it. Is this normal? I have an 02, is it possible that my CAT is a little clogged up? Its not throwing codes but I'm not sure if the CAT could be clogged without throwing codes.

 

[Ranger]

What do you smell? A clogged CAT would bog the engine. Kind of like pinching your nose (can't exhale).

 

[Submariner409]

Maybe you're smelling hot oil on or near an exhaust manifold or the crossunder pipe.

Carbon itself has no real odor, and if some nasties did come out of the tailpipe under WOT, they were already 10 feet behind you........

 

[Yaemish]

That's what I thought; the people behind me would smell it not me. I definitely get a smell of something though. Maybe there is a bad weld somewhere and that is why I smell it? I've also had people tell me that when I do a WOT in front of them that I let off a puff of dark smoke initially.

 

[Submariner409]

A puff of dark smoke on an aggressive throttle application is perfectly normal, particularly for a car that is primarily city-driven. That dark "smoke" is actually carbon dust and soot which builds up in the tailpipes and mufflers with low-speed running. You punch it, exhaust gas flow increases dramatically, and the nasties let loose.

Now.........back in the carburetor days, if you got a puff of black smoke on a sudden WOT, it was from the carburetor accelerator pump shooting a squirt of raw gas into the primary bores. A bit of tuning would get the pump stroke to the proper 'squirt". No way on a computer controlled SFI/MPFI (Sequential Fuel Injection/MultiPort Fuel Injection) setup. That takes a computer program and study to change injector timing and pulse rate.

 

[Ranger]

Have you checked you FPR recently?