i just got the car run'n after doing: aluminum heads, cam, ported intake plenum and runners and hooker long tube headers.

we were breaking the cam in, in the driveway. so it was at bout 1,500-2,000 rpm. after 5 mins of this the headers were glowing bright red. it was a little more obvious because it was dark out, but still should they glow like that? the computer is stock and it doesn't run the way it should (air fuel mixture all messed up) could it just be run'n very hot becuase of a not normal mixture of air /fuel? we shut it down after bout 5-10 mins and decided to figure this out before breaking in the cam for 20 mins w/ it glowing like that.

any ideas?

 

did you check your thermostat. your engine could be runnin' lean and heating up if that's not it "me no know"

 

It might be normal. Headers are thin tubing and it gets pretty damn hot.

Back in the days of piston/propeller driven airliners, on night flights, you could see flame shooting a couple feet out the exhaust pipes, and the pipes and exhaust plumbing was glowing bright red.

 

A stat shouldn't have anything to do with it.

Make sure you're not running lean. The timing is probably off since you worked on it.

 

What changes did you do to the car? I know a new cam but how much bigger? I put a ZZ3 cam in my vett and the headers were doing the same thing! I had to put my fuel psi from stock 43.5 to about 48 psi to give the car what it needed....more fuel! YOu had better do the same! I would bet my next pay check that your runnig lean..lean is mean and will destroy your engine if you do not get it fixed! Do not romp on it until you get this problem resolved! I would increase the fuel psi to 46 and take a look for red headers, then if its not glowing, pump it up to 48 jsut for safety! If it is still glowing, increase 2 psi unitl it stops!

Keep us informed on the outcome.

 

Well, if he did a cam swap, he took out the dist. so you're not going to have the timing right, just by dropping the dist in. So I would say that's your problem. Start the car up to break in the cam for a few mins, then let it idle long enough to set the timing, then continue with the break in.

 

I assumed the timming is correct? If not, make sure it is! Mark has a great point! With all of your mods, you need to make sure that both your timming is correct and that your getting enought fuel. First do the timming since incorect timming can easily be fixed! Then increase the fuel psi. With your mods, I'll bet your needing more fuel psi.

 

dont just double check your timing. triple, even quadruple times check it. 3 times wasnt enough for me after my cam swap and i had the same problem. the timing was off 180 and i thought it was dead on stupid me. but the was on my first engine rebuild and i taught myself so i guess its not that bad but check it a couple times

 

I had SAME problem ended up being valves were way to tight and timing was WAY off.

 

What else do you have for an exhaust? Could it be something that is clogging? You are putting more pressure and volume through the pipes. Just a thought.

 

That is very possible, but I still think it's a timing issue.

 

Probably is but I just wanted to add something to be looked at. Kind of as what could it be now type of thing.

 

Your timing is retarded and you're still burning that Air/Fuel mixture as it is being exhausted into the headers. I've had this exact problem before.

Tim

 

just out of curiousity what would be a normal exhuast temp for you guys



I have that same problem on my car where I have glowing red headers if I run at WOT for any time at all
timing is spot on and I am getting enough fuel into the system
just a thing the rotories do

 

Headers get to be around 1200+*. Of course that is different than the temp of the exh gas, cause cast iron manifolds get hotter than headers due to the material.

 

Timing...Timing...Timing...

 

yeah I was looking at exhuast temp readins like if you had a EGT in your exhuast

 

If your cam is much bigger, you may have to run a lot more ignition timing at idle. With my large solid roller cam, I have to run at least 30-35 degrees timing at idle, otherwise my headers glow bright red at just idle. Hot enough to melt plug wire boots and make every plastic piece underhood brittle. My air/fuel was always a tad on the rich side, so it wasn't a lean condition.

 

A few years back we built a monster of a 3.4 engine from scratch. We also added new pacesetter headers. I broke it in on my way back from the shop in Ohio (Had to be at work in KC 10 hours later). The headers' outside black coating turned bright white, yet the engine was running at a normal temp. By the time I got home, they were black again *shrug* never quite figured that one out.