Hi Scotty and community,
Love the site and now I have a question of my own.
Long story short, my 1994 Toyota Carina E 1.6i with 358.000 kms on the clock needed a new catalytic converter, because CO emissions were a little high. They no longer make those and we didn't want to cut a perfectly fine 30-year old original exhaust pipe, so it stood for over a year. Then they put on a replacement by cutting the pipe after all. That was a few months ago.
It passed the CO inspection and ran well. But last week we took it for a 50km drive. Drove fine, still a great car after 30 years. However... after the drive it idled and I noticed the exhaust was still white-ish just as it was at startup. It is cold at the moment and it hadn't run in a while so there might have been water in the exhaust at first, but after a drive that should be gone. Also, there was water dripping out the end. But most importantly, it spluttered. The engine didn't, but the exhaust did.
Now, the car sat for a long time, so might the old fuel in the tank have accumulated water? Is it the old fuel itself causing the splutter? Or is the exhaust itself maybe not airtight after the cat replacement? Or might it be something else entirely?
All suggestions welcome, I am afraid to drive it now for fear of ruining my best friend.
Many thanks,
Dom
PS. I have video of the exhaust splutter available
- Well old fuel can definitely do that and it can clog up everything. The pump, the filter and anything in the fuel injection all the way to the engine. And also check for a blown head gasket that'll make it do that too. See my video how to tell if your head gasket is blown Scotty.
@scottykilmer Thanks Scotty for your fast reply. The answer scares me though, haha. I will definitely see about that head gasket test as quickly as possible. But I sure hope it's not that, because that's going to be a hassle and maybe expensive if I can't do it myself. Is there some way I can get that video to you?
Thanks again for all your good work and great videos!