Replaced exhaust manifold/cat; weird smell
 

So I failed emissions (AZ here) and got the p0420 code and was told it was my cat.

I drive an 00 LX so its easiest to replace them at the same time. I replaced them and was told to torque the manifold/cat to 25-30 ft lbs. I usually dont do my own maintenance so i did not have a torque wrench and just tightened the bolts with what i have. When I turn my car on and it runs for a bit, it starts to smell like gasoline (as if theres an exhaust leak of some sort)

Also, there is a strange smell i sometimes get that kind of smells like pasta noodles being boiled (strange, i know)

I got the part from 1A Auto if that helps, any info i forgot to include i can provide

Re: Replaced exhaust manifold/cat; weird smell
 

How many miles have you put on since you installed new exhaust parts?

It takes some time and a lot of heat to cook out all the new smells and it can stink real bad for a while before it gets better.

Re: Replaced exhaust manifold/cat; weird smell
 

its only been driven maybe 5 miles since. thats what i started guessing since the car runs fine i just wanted to make sure. thank you for the help

Re: Replaced exhaust manifold/cat; weird smell
 

When I used to be an emissions tester I would have people that installed new exhaust parts immediately before bringing their car to be tested. And I would turn them away and tell them to drive 50-100 kms before they came back and did the test because they could potentially fail the etest with the brand new parts giving the machine false readings. This probably wouldn't affect an obd2 test but it might throw off a sniffer test