Thread: 04 GTP caught fire, cat issues and questions

The day before yesterday after only a 15 minute drive to work, the engine caught fire melting the oil cap and 2 plug wires and would've flamed everything if a co-worker hadn't told me my car was smoking.

The guy at the shop swung by to have a look and from what we could tell, it was a clogged cat backing up heat to the engine. Hardly any exhaust is making it to the back. Car isn't running great, but it's not too bad. Temp reading shows the cat heating up quick, and cool afterwards

Sooo, instead of them getting the parts and charging me out the ass, I was going to source my own but i'm not sure what to do. A 3" downpipe and hi-flow cat would be nice. However, what happens if it throws a SES cat code? I don't mind a ghost code but don't want it effecting stuff down the line. Hogans got a nice inexpensive setup but it could still throw a code, or dish out another $100 for one that don't. At that price, just rather get a cheap direct fit.

Just trying to make the best performance, inexpensive, no hassle decision. You guys have any input?

Are you sure it's a clogged cat that started this fire? I don't buy that because if your engine got that hot to melt your oil cap then its toast. Your oil would turn to sludge causing failure everywhere.

My bad, not really the engine, but the exhaust manifolds being super hot. Two of the plug wires by the front mani were melted, and must've flamed which then started on the oil cap and dipstick. We stopped it before it spread anywhere else....but the fire was singled out to that spot. Luckily I didn't have the engine cover on!

Wow, that's crazy! Lucky u caught it!

Found out that pre 05's have no computer issues regarding the secondary 02 sensor, just trips the check engine light. Yay for having a bastard year for once! Was almost just going to go stock, cause I didn't want the code throwing fuel problems due to a hi-flow cat. Sooo, 3" downpipe and hi-flow cat on the way

Thanks for the info guys, i'll check into those. It was the main dude at Hogan performance. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about the 3800 and the computer systems. So the cat test I was afraid of does indeed happen on the older models? I've also read the 02 simulators don't work on the newer models, but was going to try and remove the code with HPTuners later on. Anyways, it's coming in today woohoo, can't wait to get the car back.