Ok I just became a member of ThirdGen tonight, totaly wish I would have found this earlier like last year. Anyways, heres the story. 2 years ago at the begining of the summer I bought an 87 Iroc Z28, it has the 350 TPI with Iron block and heads. It had no mods whats so ever. Everything was going great I was smoking every mustang I could find (very satisfying). About a week before I planned on taking it down to the track for the first time, there is a freak storm the city floods, and in the process of getting my car to the high ground where it wouldnt be trashed, the coil shorted out from all the water. It ran but wasnt firing all the cylinders, warped the crank and 2 rods.
The Project Begins. I had the block bored 30 over, heads ported and polished, new comp cam high engergy cam, new rod, balanced, blueprinted.... I put shorty headers on it wrapped in the heat tape, adjustable fuel presure reg, MSD 6al, distributor, wires, march billit alluminum underdrive pulleys(absolut crap not worth the money), Jet Performance chip. Im sure theres more that Im forgeting, oh yeah I polished everything
Now almost 2 years later its finaly running, but the problem is the headers are glowing red hot. I was told this was just the cam breaking in and that it will go away, but it hasnt and I dont want to melt, warp or other wise mess things up.
Any help, advice, suggestions would help a lot.

I put a picture of the car on here, I have to find the ones of the engine though, I will post them when I do

 

hmmmm red hot.............how soon after you start yor car?? im guesing its cause of the heat wrap you got on there. i didnt heat wrap mine, and my cam never made my headers red hot. they do get hot though. if they are red hot.....im thinkin there is something else wrong then, but i cant put my finger on it. Does your car over heat?maybe you just got some really cheap, unthick headers!... i dont know what to tell you. sorry...hopefully someone else here can!

 

Do you have a cat? Timing properly adjusted? Running lean?Nice car by the way. And I would take the header wrap off.

 

The headers are hedman hedders, they are the shorties designed for the camaro, I also got the y pipe so that it all hooks up to the stock converter.

I forgot to mention in the list of mods that I removed the AIR pump, and the headers are the kind with out the fittings for AIR

 

Sounds to me like you're running lean or have a clogged cat, check to see if the cat is glowing.

 

yeah listen to mark and check that cat. i have them headers and havnet had anyproblems. but i also got no cat and the timing is at 12 degrees. get rid of that wrap too, do you more pain then pleasure.

 

So is the wrap a good idea or not then? because so many things get close to the headers due to the tight engine compartment I was told that it was neccisary. Is it ok to just bore out the inside of the cat from a performance stand point? Im not worried about emissions. And if it is running lean is cranking up the fuel pressure regulator enough or do I need to do more?

 

what are the pitfalls of wrapping the headers?

 

I was told that the header wrap was actualy supposed to speed up the exhaust gases through the headers not hold it in them as it seems to be doing.

As promised pictures of the engine, Enjoy.

 

Another Picture

 

Header Wrap Pros: Reduced Heat

Cons: traps moisture and speeds up rust
chemicals like oil deposit on them, fire hazard

So take em off. Get the headers coated and will be a lot better.
If plug wires are to close, get wire looms.

 

ive been told more than once that header wrap is :nono: , yes on one hand it keeps the heat in the headers and under your hood doesnt get as hot but on the other keeping the heat in the headers is no good either

 

mark is that a pic of your car? if so what the hell kind of plug wires are those?

 

Thanks for all the help and ideas, and how fast everyone responded, Im going to try a few things tonight after work and see what happens.

Im sure I will be asking more questions in the near future as I am going to start burning my own chips in the next month or so to try and get the most out of all the mods that I have done.

 

They're Accel 8mm unfortunately, I bought some Spectre Heat Sleeving, that's what the red is, but I only ordered 1 package and it wasn't enough.

 

I just bought the MSD heat shield for mine..25' plenty in one kitcost 39.99 at jegs Item # 01213408. Hey Mark, when you put the sleeving on did you have some little shrink sleaves ? do these go at the top and bottom? Also, I got covers for the boots, and some glass string, where do you use the string? Damn kit had no instructions...and I've never used heat shield before. Thanks.

Ron

 

Umm were did you get those Camaro centerbolt valve covers?

 

Ok, I'll take a poke...

How long does it take for them to start glowing? Is it only after a run up? After it idles for a minute or two, or more like 5? Does it go away? Did you change injector size? Play with fuel pressure? Did you use a new O2 sensor? With TPI it can be a few things ranging from your timing being retarded, running lean or even rich.
Edit: Oh yeah, have you pulled a plug or two to look at what they say?

 

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet.......but a while ago my buddy got his new ZZ4 crate motor going, and soon after startup while breaking in teh cam we noticed the headers were RED hot glowing (this was at night) in fact, while on the test drive, they caught on fire, or at least a piece of wire about 5inches from them did..........so anyways, we discovered it was because he had the wrong timing tab on the engine and the timing was way retarded, so we upped the timing like 15 degrees and the headers were fine after that. I think that the more timing you have, the more it moves the heat into the combustion chamber.......which is why the motor detonates with too much, and the more retarded the timing is, the more it moves the heat into the exhaust, which is why it glows red.
Chris

 

Actually, it's not shrink sleeving, it's just regular electrical tape, and works just the same. Also since the wires were not the "you make the length" kind, I had to cut the sleeving down the middle and wrap it around, so I tried my best to hide that part.

That extra protection is well worth it.

 

cant ya pull the boots off of custom wires? I'm hoping to install new wires and the shielding this weekend, hmmm guess ill have to see wich wires I buy. seems splitting the sleevs would decrease the effectivness. Guess I 'll find out one way or the other. I didnt have my headers coated, now I'm having trouble with vapor lock on 80 + days. I just cut my hood for cowel induction, and to accomidate my new 14 x3" aircleaner. Anyway, Ive got heat shield for my fuel lines also, the engine runs nice and cool....everything around it is cooking....much better with the hole in the hood....

 

Well, I did it so, that the part of the wire that's facing a header pipe isn't opened.

 

thats what I will also do if it comes down to it . thanks for the help Mark, And that engine bay of yours looks CLEAN.

 

It may also be possible that your cam timing may be retarded. Did you degree the cam when installing it?

 

There seems to be some decent replies, but I thought I would set the record straight.

If the headers only glow up near the heads, then look for a lean condition.

If throughout the entire tube, at pretty much the same time, then you have arich condition.

Why? Well, unspent fuel, reignites in the primary tubes andn causes the tubes to glow. A lean condition creates higher combustiono chamber temps and is usually dissapated once it leaves the head...so then there's just a slight glow from excessive heat.

Above was mentioned about advanced/retarded timing...if the timing is late (retarded) then unspent fuel will exit the exhaust..and mimic a rich condition...glowing primaries. Yes, advanced timing can do the same thing, but in order to advance the timing so much as to allow unspent fuel into the exhaust, you'd ping like crazy when you touhed the throttle in gear.

Cam timing? Naw, if you lined up the dots correctly, even if the grind was off 2*'s (which I doubt) wouldn't cause a problem. A tooth or two off, sure, but not a few degrees on a street engine.

Good luck...look for extra fuel.

 

Ok thanks for all the help, I tried a few things and fixed the problem. And the winner was TIMING. My moron friend that was running the timing gun retarded it 6 degrees instead of advanced as I told him to. I now have it set at 12 degrees advanced, and shes running great, no glowing headers, no overheating, all is good. I also reset the IAC and the TPS, brought the idle down to where it should be, and all is well. After not having this car going for almost 2 years you would not belive how happy I am right now. Not to mention excited to drive it (waiting for registration to clear)

Who ever it was that asked about the valve covers they are from the Classic Industries catalog about a year ago they are offical gm after market parts, list price was $229.95 I caught some kind of sale and got them for like $180 with shipping. They come with the letters painted blue but I painted mine red.

Thanks again to all that contributed.

 

sweet!! congrats on fixxing the problem, glad to have been part of the disscusion. all the guys here are great, and informative. I LOVE YOU MAN!!

 

Just curious, you guys replaced the stock ZZ3 cam that comes with the ZZ4 motor correct? Cause the ZZ4 crate motor is already propane fired and ready to go.

And by the way, CONGRATS on getting the car running. I wish I could get my ZZ4TPI running.

 

Edelbrock is putting a reactive metal in their headers now. The glow purple! Physcodelic!

 

You're kidding me, that's just as bad as those new light up exhaust tips.

 

Nope, I completely true! Tuner thing trickling down to our levels...

 

Glad to hear you got it worked out. I vote for losing the header wrap anyways though. I haven't seen another member here who wraps their headers (coated or uncoated). As a sidenote, I believe hedman actually says not to wrap their headers.

...and nice looking engine!

 

Thanks,

Yeah hedman does say not to wrap them because it voids the warrenty. But I voided the warrenty anyways when I had the O2 sensor fittings welded on. I wasnt to fond of the wrap to start with because it looks like crap if you ask me, but I wanted to cool things down under the hood. So as soon as I get the money and a weekend to take off the headers Im going to have them coated. I also plan on cutting out the areas of the hood under the louvers and building some alluminum louvers that can be opened and closed to allow air in.

Got another question here, Im trying to fix my temp gauge(doesnt work at all) and the service manual lists some guage tester, is there a way I can do this with out the tester???

 

There's some resistance values for the sensor, don't have them near...try a search, I know that Vader has posted the table before. Can be chacked with an inexpensive ohm meter.