I put the ford SVO 24lb inj into my TPI 350 over a year ago. Now I'm having problems with headers glowing bright red. I've checked the timing, TPS, EGR, etc. I know this is a "Rich" condition and now I'm wondering whether or not these injectors are dumping too much fuel. I have a custom burn using the APYP bin. The odd thing is the car was running great until I had to replace my distributor due to the teeth grinding off. Let me know your thoughts.

 

Timing is retarded. This has the same effect as too much fuel. The engine passing too much unburnt fuel due to late timing.

 

I have the timing advanced from 6 * up to 30 * and I still get the same effect. Do you think it has anything to do with the injectors?

 

I would suspect the distributor as the problem, since that was the last thing you did, right? Maybe the dist is off a tooth or the outer ring on your balancer has slipped, timing chain jumped a tooth.

 

Yeah, I think that has a lot to do with it as well.

 

make sure you didnt knock off any of the small vaccuum lines when you swapped your dist.... disconnected vaccuum line usually causes lean condition, but wouldnt hurt to check... might want to check plugs also

 

Okay, I swapped injectors and now the car really performs however, all tubes on my headers are still glowing red. The car temp doesn't get above 160 but I can't get rid of the red headers. Since the car is performing great I think timing is set fine. HELP!!!

 

The last time I looked red glowing headers was indicative of a lean fuel condition, not a rich one ...

 

Okay What do I need to do to fix it? Is this a timing problem or what?

 

If I am not mistaken, lean mixture makes your piston hot, red headers sound like rich condition... You need a scanner of some type to check your O2 readings. You may need a new O2. Check your fuel pressure also...

 

Quickie post...Lean will make headers glow as well as shoot up the NOx as well as the operating temp, it has to be overly rich to cause the glow, and you'll smell that condition easily. Timing issues as well would do it and retarded timing would make it glow without typically raising operating temps... more later or someone else will add to it.

 

there are many things at play here.

rich and lean can both do this, timing can do it, valve settings can do it, and cam position can do it.


Assuming the cam is stock or installed correctly, i'd say blame either timing, fuel or valve adjustment.


I'd first check timing if you havn't ever mesed with your rockers.

If your timing is too far retarded then you can have glowing headers, but if its too far advanced the same thing can also occur. Because the initial combustion can happen, and if it likes it, it can combust again at TDC from compression.

If its EFI, timing should be set at 6-8* initial(physical) advance. Because the ECM will add addistion timing afterwards. If your too far retarded, the ecm can only add so much advance before misfires happen, so its only allowed so much. It wont be able to compensate for the retardedness.

Fuel can also be another part. Are you sure all injectors fire? DO you know how to check? A mechanic's stethascope can hear the little click the noid makes when they are actuating. Check all of them.

Spark is more likely the problem then not.

For some reason when you swapped distributors, did you check to make sure the dizzy advances? Might seem dumb, but even the best mechanics make mistakes.

Another dumb question, what grade gas do you use? Premium? or Regular?

If you use premium, empty that tank, and fill up with regular. If the car diesles afterward, its definately timing. IF you use regular, well then forget this idea.

Here's the one most get mad when you ask. When standing in front of your car looking at the engine, which direction should the balancer line be compared to the 0* mark on the timing tab? This might seem dumb, but so many make this mistake.

On my car i had a red hot header problem. But i later found out i was 80* initial, and it was because of my flea market timing light i got for $8. It delayed showing me my timing so much 80* had passed.

 

if you wanna check for rich conditions, take out your 02 sensor, and get a long lighter and see if you can light it up. That for sure will tell you.

But timing sounds more like the problem, then any other simptom.

Are all the headers glowing red? not just 3 or 4?

if all glow red, it would almost have to be a timing issue, hard for 8 injectors to be bad all at the same time, and even if you have higher fuel pressure, and larger injectors installed, unless your ecm is programmed for like 19# injectors and a 305, it can't be totally pig rich.




I was in this boat, and took the easy way out, converted to Carb, and let me tell you this, i will never go back. Carb is great and i still get good fuel economy, almost better than the previous 305, which is almost impossible, but it had more problems then i ever knew about.

 

Thanks to the last few posts. This will most certainly help me with troubleshooting. I'm leaning more towards the timing as well. Its hard for me to believe that this car which as a 355cid can't handle 24lb or 25lb injectors.

Yes, all 8 tubes are glowing red and I use prem gas. I haven't heard about putting regular unlead but I'll give it a try.

The now that so frustrating is that I just took out my SVO 24lb injectors for nothing. Now I have 25lbs injectors and while the performance is back, I'm still having problems.

I'll be sure to get back to this post when I have my problem resolved. Thanks to all.

 

Other than the distributor & injectors, is it stock? It may be easier in the end to return the engine to stock specs and see if the problems disappears. Pretty easy to do on TPI -- most of the customizable settings are in the PROM.

Also check for a clogged cat.

 

Agreed. Undo you y pipe or cat or headers, which ever is easiest to take the cat out of the equasion, then try it. If you don't have a cat then completely disregard everything I just said.

 

BTW: how are you setting the static timing? Are you disconnecting the EST wire when you do this? I'm just checking because I forgot to do that one time, simply forgot even though I should have known better.

Also, at night or in my dark garage, my headers always glow a bit red. My engine idles just fine at 750 RPM. I do not think anything is wrong.

 

Yes, I'm setting the timing correctly and I even had a master mechanic look at it an he can't figure out what's wrong. I can't get back to stock because the car has been heavily modified. My cat converter is absolutely shot..I guess because of the high temps. I'm thinking I have an air/fuel problem. I going to have it dyno and then get the a/f checked out.