I just swapped out my stock cam for a summit 1103 hydraulic cam, now my headers and y-pipe get extremely hot, and during the break in, the headers actually started to glow red. If I try to drive it, it wil make them bright red. Also I saw virtually no performance increase. Stock cam was a crappy smogger w/ .380 .400 lift
My engine is a 350 with crappy 8.5:1 compression because I still have the stock 76CC heads. summit camshaft 214/224 .442/.465
edelbrock performer intake and 600 cfm carb and 1 5/8 hooker shorty headers and a dynomax super turbo, only 2.5 inch pipe, and my y-pipe is super crappy.

I've managed to come up with 3 ideas so far
1. my Y-pipe and stock exhaust pipe are too restrictive.
2. I don't have enough compression for a cam this big, but it sounds fine, no popping or backfires.
3. I am somehow going lean, i changed to some richer rods, but that didn't help at all.

Base timing at about 600RPM's is.......?

oh, ya, that's important information huh, it's 12 degrees

Sounds to me like the timing is off. Did you degree the cam?

When you degreed the cam, where was the intake lobe centerline?

I just installed the cam straight up, it's supposed to be at 107 degrees.

if you didn't degree it you don't know. where it's suspose to be and where it is are 2 differant things. my guess is your problem is timing related, either cam or ignition.

Here's a stupid question: Did you disconnect the vacuum advance when you set the timing?

you might want to make sure all your vacuum lines are hooked up, especially those big ones like the one on front for the pcv system and the one in back for brakes and stuff. Also might wanna make sure you didn't overtighten the rocker arms when setting lash.

More than likely a ignition timing issue.
Did you change the timing cover?
Did you check the timing with the vacuum advance hooked up
as 57 said?
IS the distributor advance mechanism working?

I have a new timing cover and a new pointer, the 2 'o clock style, and I have one of those proform dampener covers so I know all of my marks are good, and base timing is set to 12 degrees w/o the vac advance hooked up. the mecanical works also.
what's a normal temp for your exhaust to be? I took my snap on laser pyrometer to my collectors and they were 600-650 at idle, but when i revved it up some it went out of range. + 800 or so
I'm looking around to see if anyone I know has a degree kit, so far no luck.

So nobody thinks it's a compression Vs cam issue?
Or too small of exhaust pipe?
I ran it a little bit last night so I could see where it got hot and it was mostly the collectors, the tubes themselves didn't get too hot. Tempted to try running open headers to see if that makes any difference, but i dunno if that's a good idea or not.

I'm going to try hooking up my shops exhaust analyzer to see if i'm leaning out as well.

thanks to all of the ideas so far.
Keep 'em coming, I really need to get this working.

It is probably a timing issue. Although, the whole glowing hot exhaust thing is usually a running lean trait, but since you changed the rods, I guess its not that. I would think it would be fuel related, but I guess not.

Advance the timing and see the effect. Bet the combination of those new parts ( timing cover, tab, balancer cover) has a lot to do with it. Just cause their new don't assume they are right.

You could put a potato in the exhaust and it still would not glow
so don't think that your problem.
A vacuum leak is a possability.

Run the motor at a high idle and get the exhaust to glow.
then get a propane torch and shoot some gas ( propane) down the carb while its running and observe the exhaust system.
If it cools off there's your problem.

HardCore Hot Rods

I'm lost with that reply f-bird could you clarify that for me...what would "The problem" be..

sorry, I didn't clarify, the tab, cover etc, is new, but I ran it for a while with my old cam and it ran great.
so the propane thing will tell me if I have a vacuum leak?
I'll have to try that.

how far off would my cam timing have to be to get these symptoms.

Manifold vacuum leak.

I don't know ..... How far off did you set it? LOL

Try advanceing the timing, Then look for a vacuum leak,
Then I'd be ripping the timing cover off. Ya goofed somewhere.

Yea, if it ran before it should run now. reguardless of how wild the cam is compared to your old one it should run decent with your old settings, rods/jets ect. Something got assembled wrong, Id look more into timing as a possible cause. Most recently designed cams are fairly accurate when you install them dot to dot. I doubt a vaccum leak is causing the problem but anything can happen.

Hmmm, that's what I thought.
I checked my plugs and they look good, not burned or anything.
Think it could be caused by just a weak-sauce ignition system. I'm sure my advance curve isn't near as good as it could be. and my vacuum advance probably doesn't work that great.
it's weird, the motor just feels like it hits a wall somewhere, then feels like it's trying too hard.

This cam is not radical and need no special tuning.
Ya F***cked up somewhere.

Once ya get it sorted out you're a prime candiate for some
budget high compression hi flow home ported 305 big valve heads.
This will get the airflow and compression up to allow the new cam to really boogy.
I run 13.0 ets with this same cam. You can too.

I was thinkin about pickin up some 855 vortecs, local junkyard has em for $100 a pop.

thanks for all of the ideas, should keep me busy for a while.
I'll just have to be less cool and drive my V6 firebird till I get this sorted out.

Better yet I have 416 already to go for ya if your interested

SO,,,

Did you check the exhaust gasses for HC or extra OČ? (Are you rich/lean?)

If the mixture is correct, you're left with timing - either ignition or valve.

To answer your question, "How far off would my cam timing have to be to get these symptoms?", about 17.75° - or one tooth on the cam sprocket.

I won't be able to get my car on a gas analyzer till monday. I'm just gonna mess with my carb and my timing till then.