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[alfa] Re: Fouled plugs and extremely hot CAT



Don,
    The cat on the '86 Spider is a 3-way design....meaning it requires a 
stociometric (sp?)ratio of air and fuel to operate properly.  3-way refers to 
NOx,HC and CO (right Eric?)  You can't get a reliable stociometric ratio from any 
carburetor.  If you want to keep the carbs, either ditch the stock cat or get 
a unit with works with the early smog cars that used carbs (I think the 
Detroit cars in the 1974 era used cats but had carbs - sounds strange doesn't it!)

Cheers,
Charlie

In a message dated 4/4/04 8:57:11 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2004 18:06:38 -0500
From: Don Harvey <donharvey@domain.elided>
Subject: [alfa] Fouled plugs and extremely hot CAT

So I'm cruising in my '86 Alfa Spider all day yesterday and she was 
running sweet.  I went to take her out last night and, well he had a 
fight.  She was coughing and puttering, and long story short, after 
about 1/4 mile, I took her back home.  Heck, almost didn't make it.  I 
smelled the faint aroma of burning exhaust pipes and peaked under the 
car.  The CAT was extremely hot - like red to orange hot.  So I figure, 
either it is running extremely lean or extremely rich.  I took the 
plugs out and they are black, dry and fouled.  She's been retro'd to 
dual webers.  Any thoughts on what happened all of a sudden on my 
fuel/air mix?  Ignition problem maybe and not firing correctly?  Where 
the heck do I go from here?  Thanks for the input....
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