Thanks Bill, looking at that pic again it looks like it might be best to try to do it blind from inside reaching around where the dog house hits the firewall. Does that sound possible? Is the plug that needs to be unhooked under the hood that harness connector with a nut holding it? If so do you know the socket size for it?

 

Yeah, been in the back of my mind now for awhile. Been basting the nuts holding the cat to the manifold with PB blaster but I think its likely going to be a sawzall extraction as they seem pretty stuck.

I should note its now a crank no start situation.

when I did the smoke test the egr was the only place where smoke showed. It came out of the bottom of the egr just above where it connects to the pipe from the manifold. Not the connection itself but the holes in the egr base.

Thanks much for your help.

 

The two I have taken out I removed the plug from under the hood with a 10mm 1/4" drive socket.
I could not see the computer plug when I removed the plug, just felt for it.
There is not much room between the exhaust and the side of the dog house to reach around but I did not try it that way so you might be able to do it that way.
I think I was also standing on something so I could reach it.

 

Have you tried replacing the cap and rotor on the distributor? I have seen them wear out to the point it will do exactly what you are seeing when it starts arcing around inside.

 

Thanks Bill, Ill give it a go, figure I better at least see if there is anything obvious with the pcm

Hey Brian, headed back in a couple days with more knowledge and a few new tools for running electrical tests along with a new cap/rotor and a sweet $35 distributor from autozone. I'm sure its of the highest quality

 

The distributor from autozone has a bad PIP in it more than likely so you might have to change the PIP in the distributor you got.
It will not show up until the engine is warm.

 

It was the CAT!

went back and redid the steps to test spark and reconfirmed spark was not a problem.

fuel was still fouling the plugs

Pulled the plugs and tested compression and all where close to 160 with one at almost 170

left plugs out overnight and shot some oil in each plug hole put plugs back in. took the fuel relay off and shot alot of starter fluid into throttle body and it started right up and died when fluid was gone. Ran pretty good.

Hooked up relay and it started right up then bogged down as usual and died.

Pulled relay again and it started up and sounded good till fuel in cylinders was burnt up. Played that for awhile would run well as long as I didn't let the fuel pump keep pumping and then of course died when fuel/starter fluid was gone.

Was still thinking of trying the new distributor but the rotor they sold me was the wrong one so didn't want to try till I got a new rotor that fit.

Was resigned to another round trip for another part but decided to see if the PB blaster had worked its magic on the manifold to cat bolts. One snapped and the other 3 moved and I was able to get about a 1/4 inch separation between the two. Still had a remote starter on it and gave it a go and it roared to life. No hesitation, will take full throttle, basically runs like a raped ape.

So main problem solved.

No emission testing here so will be looking for some way to run straight to the muffler but not sure what to do with two big metal tubes that run into the top of the cat.

Also the thing starts much better with the hand held remote starter then it does with the key. Key start sometimes doesn't spin the starter. Hook up the remote and it fires right up. Also runs much better when started with the remote than the key.

Thanks to all that replied. One thing I still don't understand is why fuel pressure would drop off when it wasn't running well. It holds now after each stop of the engine.

 

Something to keep in mind (especially in a motorhome) is that without a cat, and just a pipe in it's place, it will be significantly louder.