Floor pan temperature?

[jgknowla1]

I'm in the middle of installing new carpet in my truck. I've got the old vinyl flooring and padding out, but am waiting for the carpet to arrive.

I've noticed that the floor pan gets hot under the seat - it even melted a spray can lid into a puddle.

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this before and if it's something to be worried about. As far as I can tell the exhaust is the normal distance away from the floor. I can try to take a picture of the exhaust tonight if it would help.

Any wisdom?

[smashingchuck]

Originally Posted by jgknowla1

Any wisdom?

It should not get that hot.

[oldford]

Plugged converter? Shouldn't run that hot.

[jgknowla1]

I was wondering about the cat converters. The truck's an '82 and it's got two converters that look original.

Unfortunately, at some point the exhaust was replaced and they welded the converters in, so I can't just unbolt them and take a look. No flanges left.

[smashingchuck]

Well that would be the first thing I eliminated. Fire up that saws-all.

[Turbo85GMC]

Originally Posted by jgknowla1

...it even melted a spray can lid into a puddle.

No way should it get that hot! When the PO mucked with the cats, did they take off the heat shield? There should be a heat shield on the top of the cat to protect the cab floor.

[jgknowla1]

Good idea - I'll check for that. Maybe they welded the cats back in upside down!

[USSkoval]

When I got my Burb, it was down on power and the floor would get hot while on the freeway. I thought it was a plugged converter, so it was replaced with headers and duals. It helped, but not much. It ended up being the timing, it was set back WAY too far. Now there is power and the floor has stayed cool ever since.

[jgknowla1]

Originally Posted by USSkoval

When I got my Burb, it was down on power and the floor would get hot while on the freeway. I thought it was a plugged converter, so it was replaced with headers and duals. It helped, but not much. It ended up being the timing, it was set back WAY too far. Now there is power and the floor has stayed cool ever since.

This truck is an '82 with ESC. Plus it's a 305, which means the timing mark is at 12 o'clock behind the water pump. I've checked the timing and have it set per the sticker at idle. When I throttle it, the advance does seem to work. The ESC controller is doing something at least. I don't have one of the fancier timing lights to see exactly how much the timing advances.

Engine is way down on power though, so maybe that's playing into it.

[bitchin85]

you can get a new or used non computer controlled hei distributor for close to mothing.. id do that.. and take the cats off.. itll sound and flow better

[jgknowla1]

After driving home from work tonight I checked some temperatures around the truck. The drive was about 30 minutes of suburban driving - all 35 and 45 mph.

I used a non-contact IR thermometer and found these temps:

Floor at pedals: 101 F
Under driver seat: 120 F
Under passenger seat: 175 F
Driver side cat converter: 350 F
Passenger side cat converter: Off the scale

All winter I just thought I had a great heater!

[jgknowla1]

Originally Posted by *****in85

you can get a new or used non computer controlled hei distributor for close to mothing.. id do that.. and take the cats off.. itll sound and flow better

Yeah, I've had a non-ESC dizzy on my mental list for a while. It's amazing how that list tends to grow.

I'm going to look into the cats this weekend. If they're as old as they look, and I don't doubt that they are, there's no way they're happy.

This truck's my daily driver, and I sure don't want that heat hitting me all summer.

[bitchin85]

both are reletively cheap and easy projects. (less things to go wrong, more power)

[USSkoval]

Originally Posted by jgknowla1

This truck is an '82 with ESC. Plus it's a 305, which means the timing mark is at 12 o'clock behind the water pump. I've checked the timing and have it set per the sticker at idle. When I throttle it, the advance does seem to work. The ESC controller is doing something at least. I don't have one of the fancier timing lights to see exactly how much the timing advances.

Engine is way down on power though, so maybe that's playing into it.

Did you set it with the tan/black wire disconnected?

[Turbo85GMC]

Here's an article which talks about switching from ESC to non-ESC distributor. It even tells you how to disable the ESC on your existing distributor!
http://www.73-87.com/7387garage/drivetrain/escrepl.htm

[jgknowla1]

USSkoval: No I didn't. Is that how you can disable the ESC to set the timing? I'll have to do that and see what happens. Thanks!

Turbo85GMC: Thanks for the link; I'll look into that.

[USSkoval]

Originally Posted by jgknowla1

USSkoval: No I didn't. Is that how you can disable the ESC to set the timing? I'll have to do that and see what happens. Thanks!

Yeah, if you don't disconnect that wire, the timing will be set back too far. I think that's what someone had done with mine, causing the lack of power. IIRC, the connector is along the firewall on the driver side.

[jgknowla1]

Originally Posted by USSkoval

Yeah, if you don't disconnect that wire, the timing will be set back too far. I think that's what someone had done with mine, causing the lack of power. IIRC, the connector is along the firewall on the driver side.

Hey USSkoval, thanks for your help. I'm trying to learn all this stuff as I go and it's really nice to have folks that have been there before.

I don't see a tan wire in my ignition system. The distributor has pink, black, white, green and brown.

I see from the link that Turbo85GMC posted that you can interrupt the ESC by shorting Green and Black. I'm not sure I want to do this, though, since the distributor doesn't have any mechanical or vacuum advance on it. Eventually, I'd like to replace the distributor with a non-ESC one.

[spinem]

there should be a heat riser in between the exhaust and the bottom of the floor board. alot of ol'timers took em off because they collect mud on the farms.

[jgknowla1]

Originally Posted by spinem

there should be a heat riser in between the exhaust and the bottom of the floor board. alot of ol'timers took em off because they collect mud on the farms.

Hey Spinem, I checked for heat shields and I can only find one on the driver's side. The cat converter on the passenger's side (hotter side) doesn't seem to have a heat shield and is actually closer to the floor pan than the other side. Of course, it's also the one that's really close to the fuel lines! Great!

[Kalashnikov46]

Three-way-converters also tend to get extremaly hot, to the point that a heat sheild is usless, if your truck is running rich. We had a huge arguement in class today about them on just ripping em off and tossing them. Wyoming has no emisions laws so most older trucks tend to not be set up for it here, i know mine wasnt when i bought it.

[jgknowla1]

Thanks to everyone for the input on this thread. I got the catalytic converters "fixed" yesterday and finished up my carpet install today.
Check out the carpet install in this thread. It turned out really nice and classy.

.

[spinem]

haha sorry ive been super busy.. some one most likely took it off. they always rattle... the 86's were fixed.. and in 92 they changed the style, and it rattles once again... fixed in 1999 or 2000-current

Pfff. engineers.