Exhaust induced Gurgling

[dejenerit]

I have an 89 LX (carbureted). Right now I don't have the time or money to make it considerably faster but I figured if I could squeeze a few more horses via a couple bolt-ons maybe i would at least stop getting flipped off for slowing down traffic. Since the stock exhaust is so constricting I decided that would be my first plan of action. I learned that the aftermarket exhausts were extremely limited and all that I could find was the pacesetter system from the cat back. The first night after installing it..it looked good..sounded good..and I felt an increase in power. The next morning I went to start my car and instead of revving up real high for a couple of minutes like it usually does it just grumbled at idle speed. Then while driving it sounded and felt extremely gurgly and grumbly. It was very slow to accelerate and I knew something was wrong because it had never done anything like this before. When I parked the car and put it in neutral the rpms shot through the roof...this freaked me out so I turned off the engine and the whole car just shook for like 20 seconds. Was this caused by my new exhaust somehow? Is my computer not accepting the new system? How can I remedy this? Has anyone else had this same problem? Any help would be much appreciated..
Thanks

[A20A1]

I would make sure your radiator coolant level is full.

It's not your exhaust.

Did you do anything in the engine bay... remove or adjust anything?

[dejenerit]

my coolant is full...and I didn't do anything in my engine bay...I thought because of the studdering acceleration that maybe it could be a clogged fuel filter but that wouldn't explain how it revved up on me in neutral..it's weird...so you really don't think it could have anything to do with the exhaust??

[bobafett]

i dont see how that could be caused by exhaust... although i am not too familiar with carbed idle issues... mike is probably the man to help u with that!

[Acid X]

That's what my car does. It seems like it takes a little longer for the increased idle to engage or something. Maybe the high idle has a dependency on the reduced flow of the exhaust taht causes the carb to warm up quicker somehow.

If you let the car idle low for a little while it'll eventually kick back up. Not too high, i usually end up going up to about 1900rpms and then it'll increase slowly from there until its warm. Rather interesting, but it runs fine after that.

[lostforawhile]

you have a problem with your carb somewhere,the exaust wouldn't cause anything like that at all. also if it was the exaust it would have done it immedietly. the only thing i could posibly think of in the exaust would be if the gasket at the back of the converter is bad and you might be losing exaust velocity. thats all i could think of,but my guess would be in the carb.

[bobafett]

EFI swap?

[dejenerit]

i dont see how that could be caused by exhaust... although i am not too familiar with carbed idle issues... mike is probably the man to help u with that!

Who's Mike??

I talked to this mechanic and he says that the O2 sensor is picking up to much oxygen and the computer doesn't know what to do...Because the stock piece that bolted to the back of the converter had a bubble type thing and that constriction is what the computer based it's idle speed off of or some crap like that...I dunno..I just don't understand how that could create such a problem...Half of the people on this forum prolly have aftermarket exhausts why wouldn't the same thing happen to them...If the problem were my carb..what type of problem could it possibly be..and why would it never have happened until the day after my new exhuast....I just want my baby back....

[lostforawhile]

your 02 sensor is way up there in the manifold, it doesn't care what the rest of the exaust is doing. that type of mechanic is why i don't let anyone work on my car period. that bubble thing was just a resonator i believe, that can't possibly affect the 02 sensor. really you should check the exaust gasket at the back of the converter, they should be available aftermarket. if it's leaking it can cause problems with no exaust velocity. I'm thinking they might have left it out or something. or reused it.

[lostforawhile]

your 02 sensor is way up there in the manifold, it doesn't care what the rest of the exaust is doing. that type of mechanic is why i don't let anyone work on my car period. that bubble thing was just a resonator i believe, that can't possibly affect the 02 sensor. really you should check the exaust gasket at the back of the converter, they should be available aftermarket. if it's leaking it can cause problems with no exaust velocity. I'm thinking they might have left it out or something. or reused it.
hmm wouldn't let me edit wierd, I remember when i had the gasket where the header pipe bolts to the exaust manifold go bad. it caused a problem like that, it could possibly be the gasket at the back of the converter doing the same thing,with no exaut velocity the rps could rev eaisly like that. :)

[dejenerit]

hmm wouldn't let me edit wierd, I remember when i had the gasket where the header pipe bolts to the exaust manifold go bad. it caused a problem like that, it could possibly be the gasket at the back of the converter doing the same thing,with no exaut velocity the rps could rev eaisly like that. :)
I put in a new gasket when I put the exhaust on but I'll double check maybe somehow how i put it in wrong or something...I'll let you know..thanks for the help...yeah I thought that mechanic seemed fishy...