I was driving my 740 Turbo on Route 50 about 90-100 mph for a short stretch (about three miles). It was really moving. There was very little traffic, the road was nice and dry, I got brand new tires three weeks ago, and I'm a pretty good driver. Then I smelled this slight carbon smell, so I backed off of my little turbo fun and went on across the Delaware Bay Bridge to the beach. On the way back, I'm returning over the same bridge, and I smell the faintest carbon smell, again, and all of a sudden the speedometer goes from 65 to 55, to 45, to 40 and it's like my compression is almost not there at all. try to give it some boost, but no avail. She cuts off, midway up the bridge. I get out to look under the hood on the bridge (thank goodness two of the three lanes were blocked off by construction, so I had a safe place to pull over and out of the bridge traffic) and the manifold is GLOWING orange-red. I turn the engine off immediately. I only drove it with the noticeable lack of power for about 1 minute (seemed like an eternity) but it was up a pretty steep incline (if anybody's ever been on the Eastern side of Bay Bridge heading West, you know what I'm talking about). A State trooper arrives about 10 minutes later and bumper pushes me up the last 1/4 mile to the top of the bridge and I coast down the other side (hey, I'm doing 55 again, but with the engine in neutral).

I'd just recently failed emissions on CO2 alone and was going to have my catalytic converter checked, because within the last 2 months put in a new fuel pressure regulator, new plugs, plug wires, distributor cap. The car will crank fine and turn over, but as soon as I give it gas it sputters and cuts out. Anybody else think it's the catalytic converter? Any other thoughts?

I had the same glowing and loss of power a few years ago. plus a few wires (the ones near the injecters were the worst) that had lost insulation, due to melting.

I replaced the engine wiring harness and it ran like a new car. more power then it had in years and no more glowing manifold (I was fairly parinoid about it and stopped and checked often in the first week).

when I took it in to the shop they said that many of the wires had degraded to the point that they were sending incorect readings, so the car was driving in an 'out of tune' state.

its VERY normal for a turbo and exhaust manifold to glow when driving under load for a while .. my stock 90' 740T will do that if i drive up a hill or stay in boost for 15secs ... try that... let it warm up and drive hard for 15-20secs and pull over and pop the hood in a dark area and look @ the manifold .. should be a cherry red .. VERY normal


and that was VERY VERY bad of you to turn it off w/ the manifold glowing ... that's the REASON why you are supposed to let the car cool down after driving it. because all of that heat is there .. and if you turn it off w/o letting it cool back down to idle temps it can cause all kinds of probs besides just the normal cooked oil on the turbo

Thelostartof:

Thanks for the advice; I'll remember that and check it next time I'm doing 90-100mph on Route 50 headed toward Annpolis after 8:00 p.m. [[smile]] . . . which should be this weekend if repairs go as expected.

the glowing is normal .. the loss of power ... no idea ... make sure everything is working and running right ... if its something that always happens or if its something that sometimes comes and goes it'll be much harder to find

but usualy one cause of the turbo/manifold glowing w/ light driving could be a clogged cat ... tho one stop @ a good muffler shop and i'm sure they can tell you in a few mins if your cat is clogged or not.

sounds clogged to me. easy way to tell-unscrew the o2 sensor and drive it. if it's better, you need a convertor. good luck, chuck.

Well, it's too dark for me to mess around with it tonite, but I plan on getting on it tomorrow. Question: does this model's (1986 740 Turbo 230T) catalytic converter have an osygen sensor also? I was looking around on the internet for replacements and I think I see two different types of cat. I replaced the one that goes at the bottom of the engine block about three weeks ago.

you only have 1 sensor, in the front pipe. good luck, chuck.