Purchased a 92 firebird GTA with 75k for next to nothing. Starts up fine but idles high around 1700. Headers are glowing after only a few minutes of idle. Engine also wont rev past 3k. I have checked the tps sensor and it was reading at .54. Changed the iac sensor, cut the cat out, changed the fuel filter and have even tried to adjust the distributor with some luck as it dropped idle to normal when retarded but dies after a few minutes. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Reset the valves.

 

Is there black smoke coming out of the tail pipes?If so your running way to rich in your fueling.

 

Have you checked the ignition timing? Quite possibly very retarded.

 

These two gents both have it , I've only ever seen two things cause a glowing exhaust manifold (or header) ; VERY late (retarded) timing or valves (exhaust of course) that are either improperly adjusted (clearance too tight) or defective (sticking or burnt) and not holding the fire in .

 

I had same issue on initial start-up after an engine swap several years ago... timing was very retarded

 

Nope no black smoke, I've tried playing with the ignition timing a bit and once I get it sounding right it doesn't want to idle. Think I'm going to replace all sensors, fuel pump, fpr and injectors. Hopefully this does the trick. Thanks for the replys!!

 

What does "playing with the ignition timing a bit" mean exactly?
If the previous owner has messed things up, you could find your idle timing anywhere. Not saying it's timing that are causing your problems but I'd certainly investigate it fully before I spent a lot if time and money on fueling issues.

 

I had glowing headers from being way lean and having an intake leak before.

Timing being late and allowing burning fuel into the header is certainly a possibility as mentioned above.

This would have a similar effect if you have valves hanging open.

The think with it not being able to Rev above 3K RPM leads me to believe you are having timing issues. Don't throw a lot of parts at it. Why replace a FPR if you are not having pressure issues? Same for the fuel pump? If you have good rail pressure, these shouldn't be an issue.

 

Are you timing the car correctly? Disconnecting the est wire and using a timing light? Or are you just loosening up the distributor and turning it until it sounds good?

 

Can you check fuel pressure

 

Anything to report?