Hey, I gotta little problem here. Ever since my last race event I have had a strong odor in my car on startup until it's warm. It actually smells like propane and you actually smell it pretty strongly outside the car around the right rear wheel well area. I bought gas at the track, but it was just 91 unleaded, not even the racing unleaded, and certainly not the racing leaded!!

I have tried to locate the source of the odor and have not been successul??? It's driving me nuts! It doesn't seem to be coming out the tailpipes either. And the thing is, it actually smells like propane, and not gasoline?? Any ideas?

 

I would think if the cats were fried you would be smelling sulfur or rotten eggs. Propane smell sounds odd.

 

doubt you fried the cats, since most run 93 octane on a daily basis and while racing, 91 should have had no problems burning fully.

clutch is a burning leaf organic smell. cat should be sulfur as was said.

perhaps someone with test pipes could comment if they have the smell. if you killed your cats it should smell the same as someone with no cats right?

 

a cat is a ceramic brick... i dont think a new car can 'fry' one.

 

Actually, you can fry one through a combination of sustained high heat and severe vibration. You know, of the kind you might experience on a ................................................... RACETRACK!!!

MR2 Spyders used to continually fry their cats because of the close proximity of the CAT to the exhaust manifold. Thanks for the info dude. My other thought was that somehow, the gas I bought at the track actually was leaded gas??? Highly unlikely, but if it was, then that would also fry the cat.

Now, can someone with test pipes please describe the smell on startup.

 

understood, but where is your car creating all this heat and vibration? According to your mods list, you are NA... Please explain how your NA Z33 can burn out cats?

 

for fun i just took a pic of a piece of cat that i removed from my downpipes...

remember this cat is 2 inches from a turbo that gets ~1200 degrees

 

Is it possible that it has nothing to do with the car at all, and is instead coming from the garage (assuming you are keeping the Z in the garage).

Do you have a gas/propane water heater or air heater? Maybe it was just a change in the weather? I guess you'd notice it before you started the car if it was something else though.

Very weird.

-D'oh!

 

Car is actually not garaged (I know, the horror!!). I am gonna really strip it tomorrow to see if I can't solve this??

 

He he he .... and the winner is LOGIK... BY (KO)

 

I'm amazed, knowing you the way I do, that you don't have a set of RT Cat's on that car!! Next time your over here let's change them out and give you a little more H.P.

 

I had cat pipes on the Z for about a month and never noticed a strange smell inside the car on startup. Outside the car, from the tailpipes I noticed a different smell... but it's neither sulphur nor propane smell.

Did you get something stuck onto the exhaust that is slowly melting itself away? I had a plastic grocery sack affix itself to my A4 exhaust and that smelled BAD for about a month!

PeteH

 

oh jeez...why was I thinking house cats?

 

I'd recommend against Random Technology's High Flow cats on an NA. I like my back pressure (and low end power).

 

Why would you do that?

when I installed the Zred cat pipes and NISMO headers we dyno'd the car... I actually made more torque between 2800 and 4700 than before the cat pipes and headers.... more area under the TQ curve with the headers and cat pipes and the power was still low- to mid-range.

So... you don't lose any low end power....

Much more noticable at the track. At Texas World Speedway I was making enough power to go around almost all 15 turns in 4th gear... I used 3rd for the Carousel a few times, and when I was in traffic.

my top end HP dropped off by 2HP from 246hp to 244HP.

So... I'd go with RT cats or cat pipes any day.

PeteH

 

Logik, Logik, Logik, why-oh-why have been surfing the 350 boards recently? Possibly looking into getting a 350 perhaps?

Anyway, the 350 exhaust system appears to be overly restrictive w/ 2 pairs of cats (much like the Z32 TT). The idea is to eliminate as much backpressure and restriction in the exhaust system as possible while not completely elmininating exhaust scavenging and exhaust velocity. IMO, the RT cats would serve that purpose very well.

Besides, the 350 has enough low-end power that even if the RT cats completely eliminated backpressure (and low-end power), it wouldn't be as big a deal as with the Z32 NA.

BTW, give Wolf my regards -- he tells me you're in the same building. Also tell'em we may be flying up there for the Christmas holidays...

Michael.

 

What is a 'cat pipe'?

Hey man, how yah been? What are you doing here and not 350zforums.com? My father purchased 2 Z33's (Blk/blk, Touring, 6spd and Blue/blk, Performance, 6spd) He has given me the task of researching Forced Induction possibilities. At this point we are leaning towards the Procharger, simply because he doesnt want a CF hood or to cut his stocker.

Wolf's company moved out in the middle of the night and didnt pay their bill..

He is looking for a 350Z also. He was outbid on a sweet turbo one on ebay a few weeks back.

Nice to see a familiar name bro.

-L

 

A cat-pipe = a catalytic converter bypass pipe = straight pipe = test pipe

 

LOL, I'm everywhere. Likewise, why are YOU here and not on 350zforums?

You know... Vortech will be release a centrifugal s/c much like ATI's...

Whoa. Now that is spooky. The way he described his work "environment" reminded me of the movie The Boiler Room.

LOL, that's probably because I fed the idea to him a while back. But he seemed more partial towards the G35 coupe's styling. *sigh* Wolf and his damned project cars. It seems he gains a couple of new cars everytime I'm up there.

Man, had I known you joined the ranks of the 350 community, I would spread the word to genic and wes (he goes by 'was wesman' here) this past weekend...

Michael.

 

You, being a DFW O.G. Zer, should be supporting Damon & Greg's site . I came here for Mike Wazowski and because 350zforums.com is too slow.

Too late. I talk to Erik and Wes all day on AIM