my sasd 1990 toyota acted up a couple of weeks ago, wouldn't idle and cat was red hot, missfiring lots. I changed the sparkplugs and ran great for a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks later, same thing happened cat was red hot, and wouldn't idle. this was on the trail and i got it to a gas station thank god it was all downhill. My idiotic friend told me to change the lead wires, and i knowing full well that would not do anything went along with it anyways. After changing lead wires and my brother cranked it and i saw a flame shoot out from the throttle body. I didn't try starting it after that. What do i do know? I am not really a newb since i have my ast level one (we didn't learn about stuff like this)

 

Isn't retarded timing one cause of a red-hot exhaust? At least it's easy to check and eliminate.

 

Yes, retarding the timing will cause the motor to run rich, rich running motors dumping fuel into the cat will cause it to glow red, it sounds like the timing is off and you most likely need a new cat at this point.