2000 Saturn LS1 high Idol and no power

[Boxtruck1212]

I hope I do this right. Car ran fine the night before. Next morning go out to start car to warm up to take my girlfriend to work and it starts but fans are on high speed with high idol. didn't want to turn car off and have it not start so I just waited for girlfriend to come out and proceeded to take her to work only being a mile at most. Once there I could smell something that was very hot girlfriend got out and I looked under car and saw catalytic converter glowing orange. Let it sit for 15 minutes or so and figured I should get it at least home. So I drove it back home same deal very hot glowing catalytic converter with smoking coming out from bottom of car. Went in house decided couldn't do anything till it cooled down anyway. Later came out took exhaust off from manifold to rear of car and separated catalytic converter from rest of exhaust. I figured it was clogged and proceeded to unclog or punch hole through catalytic converter. I did and put it all back together and started car and still had high idol and fans on high speed but no more glowing catalytic converter. Put code reader on it later that day and code P0300 was the only code to come up. I've down various test to check coil packs, new plugs, looked for vacuum leaks need help please help I'll try anything with in reason. Thanks

 

[Derf]

Gans running immediately at startup is usually either

1) a coolant temp sensor failure, shorted /pcm thinks coolant temp is way high

2) PCM not getting an input from the coolant temperature sensor / failsafe mode because the PCM has no idea how hot the engine is

3) Your ac is on.

4) The cooling fan relay is stuck closed/shorted, allowing continuous current flow to the fan motors.

What is normal idle and what rpm is it idling at when warmed up?
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The glowing cat usually means you are burning raw gas in it. For this to happen the engine must be running super rich. If the coolant temperature sensor reading is falsely hot, the mixture would be lean.

So it does not sound as though it is dumping fuel. Unless the misfires are constant (blinking service engine light). How many miles on it?

Let's deal w the fan situation 1st, then the idle

Oh the no power is consistent w a clogged cat. Is that issue remedied or does it still have no power?

 

[Boxtruck1212]

So to answer your appreciated response and insite my cold start up idol is right below 2000 and I've only driven the car very little due to the fact that if I pulled out in front of someone and for whatever reason didn't give myself enough time and I needed to go faster I just wouldn't be able to do so but warm up idol seems to be roughly 1300 and cold or hot still no power. And you ask mileage there's almost 180,000. So as I mentioned in my first post I did take the exhaust off and I wish I would have checked this first but after I hallowed out the catalytic converter and reinstalled it and started it disappointingly it was doing the same thing I went to the tail pipe to check flow or pressure ya know and I'm not certified mechanic by no means but the pressure coming out of the end of my exhaust pipe seem to be quite extensive as if that was a normal I just wish I would have checked that before I hollowed it out like I said but I didn't. So to answer your question no it doesn't have any power. Today I took off the coolant sending unit and watch a few U-tube video on how I could check it and we'll I did so twice however the first time I check it with the ohms to be at somewhere between like 5.50 to 6.50 at cold water being roughly 60 degrees and then ohms at running temp say 190 and higher being between .45 to somewhere close to .8 to .9 and I never was able to notice the meter get any higher than 1.74 on cold and yes it did drop on higher temps. However I was sitting watching TV and I started thinking maybe I wasn't get a good connection the first time so I wanted to try again but this time I maid some clips for the sensor side ya know like little speaker plugs the female plugs and put them on there and to my surprise I received a very accurate reading being 5.65 on the 60 degrees test and a .80 is what I go on my 190 degree test. Now that tells me that the sensor should be good and is working fine. So this is what I've decided to do about the sensor. I'm going to try it again in the morning and see what I get cuz who knows between the couple of beers give or take and whatever else that I'm putting in my body to altar my mind you smoking cigarettes and we'll any way that's my plan. I'll update in the morning thanks.

 

[Derf]

Just want to confirm this is an L series LS1 and not an S series SL1. Completely different animal.

Please double check the units setting on your meter when you do the retest. If they truly are readings in ohms, they are extremely low and probably indicate that the sensor is bad. Yes, the resichaine changes with temperature, but the actual range of resistance, if those are truly ohms, is so close to shorted it is making the vehicle PCM think that the coolant temp is crazy high. This would explain the fans at startup.

2000 RPM for a cold start is way too high, and 1200 warmed up is also way too high. This is consistent with a vacuum leak. This includes at the intake manifold gasket and where the throttle body meets the intake manifold. It also includes all vacuum lines as well as the hose from the PCV valve to the air intake.

Have you cleaned The throttle body and the IAC valve? These can artificially raise the idle when they get gummed up and start to stick in place. I strongly recommend cleaning these.

The other situation that can create a glowing cat con is if the timing slips but not enough for the Pistons to hit the valves. This leads to a loss of power and misfires, because the fuel is being put in at the proper time, but the spark is not igniting the mixture at the right time to maximize the power from each combustion event. There are also times that there will be no combustion and all. This is the equivalent of pushing unburned raw fuel out the exhaust valves and into the catcon where it burns fire red.

This vehicle has a timing chain If it is in LS1 4 cylinder engine. If the timing has jumped, it's possible that the only way the PCM can keep the car running is to jack up the idle speed.

I would recheck very closely for a vacuum leak right where the intake runners meet the head. Do not forget to spray the undersides of the ports.

That should give you somewhere to go on and a few things to check. Please let me know what the answers are to the additional questions here, as well as the original response.