Ricardo Vega

Good morning from west Texas yall. I decided to start up my guards red 89 automatic with 89,000 miles after it sat with 1/4 of gas for about 3.5 years. Managed to start it up about 2 weeks ago just to see how it did just idling making sure it warmed up properly and no fluids didnt leak. It good. Following week I did the same but noticed my fans were not kicking in at all. Did a by pass with a switch to turn on manually for now just to get it going. A few days ago I drove it home from where it was in storage at a friend's business and everything seemed fine. Noticed it got a bit warm but nothing bad happened. Decided to get a radiator flush in it then sat there for about 15 minutes in driveway and I went inside to watch a game and I started smelling burnt oil. I walk outside and notice smoke is coming from under the car and I turn it off and looked under and I see the cats red hot! They were burning the concrete on ground!
reached out to a friend who is very knowledgeable about cars, he's a NAHRA mechanic, and he said maybe the gas became like varnish and so he recommended to put in 93 gas for the rest of the tank and to put a bit of booster as well. Did that but still got hot again yesterday. So I'm lost. My camera takes 8K videos so i can upload them to this post but ill attach the YouTube links for the videos I posted.
Anybody else seen this before? I do have an 87 automatic that i can swap ECU's with but wont crank it again till i have some one recommended me something.

https://youtu.be/R0EZ18TLbm8

https://youtu.be/PKqadfRkg40

Uncle Ricco

gbgastowers

Had that happen on driver side cat of a Lexus SC400. The coil that controls spark on the drivers side had quit so no spark and unburnt fuel ignited in cat and it glowed cherry red

928cs

Something similar is certainly the reason of the anomaly of this 928.
Are all 8 cylinders burning fuel? I doubt that they are.

rexpontius

Thats a CarBQ waiting to happen, usually caused by very lean running or dumping unburt fuel.
Surely its not running 100%

Speedtoys

"very knowledgeable about cars, he's a NAHRA mechanic, and he said maybe the gas became like varnish and so he recommended to put in 93 gas for the rest of the tank and to put a bit of booster as wel"

FFS..ya..just keep driving it, this will clearly solve an ignition issue.

Vilhuer

Check and if possible change distributor caps to see if it fixes the problem. See posts made in this forum by Arnoud for more info. His GTS has similar problem without any visible reason and changing those helped.

awilli6

Mine was only running on 4 cylinders when it did this. A change of the coils fixed it.

Petza914

Unburned fuelnis igniting in the cat. Remove the injectors. Send them to witchhunter for cleaning, refurb, and flow and spray testing.

If the gas in the tank wasn't stabilized prior to storage, drain it and start with fresh, install new plugs and smell the old ones to see if they smell like gas or turpentine and are the deposits on them shiny or normal looking. Once you have injectors you know are working, new plugs gapped correctly, and good gas, if it happens again will be an ignition issue - wires, distributor, computer, etc..

The Forgotten On

Could be an issue with the LH ecu if all cylinders are firing. If only 4 are firing and it is doing that it is the ignition system.

Most likely a bad ignition amplifier (what happened to me), they're under the plastic cover next to the hood latch.

Or possibly a bad coil. Either way, stop driving it until you verify what is wrong.

karl ruiter

I'd go over my plug wires very carefully. Do not drive it this way.

IcemanG17

I also agree with the DO NOT DRIVE IT.....the fuel is clearly bad and there are other issues in play. Drain and flush the tank, I'd install a new fuel filter since you are there.... Pull and check the plugs for signs of fouling (rich condition) or other issues.....once again can't hurt to replace. Checking the distributor caps is also quite easy, are they burnt or corroded? Bad O2 sensor is also probable....its pretty easy to check the resistance of the spark plug wires or obvious signs of damage like cracking or animal bites.... Once done it should give you much more information to provide a good path to solve the issue.

giddyupp

This is almost certainly one of the two ignition control modules that sit way at the front of the engine bay. When one goes bad, there is no spark on 4 cylinders causing unburned fuel straight into the CATS which then super heats and glows red hot will catch fire real quick - had one of these go out on an 86. The cats got so hot they melted my Race Deck Floor.

ZEUS+

Check the ignition monitoring system relay located with the LH and EZK. If a red led is lit, ignition circuit 1 is shut down(cyls. 1,4,6,7). If a green led is lit, ignition circuit 2 is shut down(cyls. 2,3,5,8).

928cs

There is not such a device on a 1989 MY, I think.
Novelty of the 1990 if I'm correct.

ZEUS+

Ignition monitoring system is from 89 on
.