Glowing red. [Merged 1-7] Exhaust, turbo, glow, hot

[Goblin]

I know that if you drive a TSI hard and pull over and look at the turbo at night it will be glowing red and that is normal.

but...

If you are driving a TSI grandma style and pull over and look under the hood DURING THE DAY and the turbo is glowing red is that a bad thing?

If so what possibly could be wrong with it?

 

[Turbo Guru]

Yes, it is normal but to an extent. Do you have an EGT gauge?

 

[Newlogics]

Lack of lubrication (but not complete absense of it) and also restricted exaust intake (like having 1/4" layer of buildup on there, which is not uncommon) can also do that.

 

[fivestardsm]

If it's lacking power even a little bit it could be your catalatic converter starting to get plugged!!

 

[Goblin]

It's not my car it's a friends car and he is going away so I might buy it. The car is 100% stock except for the rims and tires, so no EGT.

From what I've heard (I've never driven it or ridden in it, that will be tomorrow) it has a boost leak (I'm guessing) because it hisses on spool and stops pulling at 5k (I've been told). I also noticed that the intercooler had crap all in it and infront of it restricting cooling (this could attribute to glowing yes?), and there is no catch-can so perhaps it's full of oil and muck. The engine is new (short block all new, the head is old) along with a new turbo so perhaps the oil sending and returning lines are the old coked up ones?

The chasis has over a 100k on it but the new engine and turbo have 10k. If the car checks out I'm thinking about buying it for $3.5k, I think that is good for a car with a new 6-bolt engine strait from satan.

 

[2-0turbo]

I'm with Turboguru on this one. It is normal. Even with normal EGT's of 1450* during normal cruise, my Pocket Ref says the color should be "Dark Red to Dull Cherry Red". This is already several steps brighter on the "color scale" than "Red, visible in sunlight". EGT's after running hard of 1650* will put your exhaust manifold approximately the same temperature and a color of "Cherry Red". This is an excellent reason to keep those heat shield on. The amount of heat radiated from a 1650* manifold is tremendous.

 

[Goblin]

Yeah, I was thinking that glowing red was normal even during the day, it's just the way my friend told me about it made it sound like it's something new that has never happend before. Better to be over cautious I guess.

 

[jamal]

What part of the turbo is glowing red? The turbine housing?

The reason i ask is I took my car down to Team Rip Racing here in Michigan and there turbo tech told me its not normal for the turbo to glow like that under normal driving.

My turbo always glows even under normal driving.

 

[larryd]

I have my heatshield off right now and one night i popped my hood after the car was being run pretty hard and the whole exhaust manifold was glowing red, thats some pretty crazy looking stuff.

 

[91eagle_tsi_awd]

i have searched this but still havent seem to find the answer.one day i drove my car for like 2-3 hours,pushed it a lil hard,stock turbo,was running stock boost also.i do have a oil leak coming from the crankshaft seal as my mechanic said to me,well my question is ,is the leak causing my manifold to glow? if not what is causing this? and i also have another question ,my turbo jus recently got f$cked up ,i drove it for about 2-3 days without boost.then i heard the turbine hittin against something,i thought it might be the housing,so on my way home it locked up and my car shut off.can this happen?does the turbo lock up?

 

[toshi128]

It's normal for our cars to run hot and therefore it causes the manifold to glow in red... so dont worry about the glowing manifold but you might wanna get a heatshield for it if you don't already have the stock one on.

I have no idea about your turbo locking up... is it just your wheel scraping the housing too much that stopped spinning? i recommand to get another turbo...

good luck!!

 

[91eagle_tsi_awd]

i already have another turbo.and the wheel was hitin the houseing ,alot of shaft play,then it jus locked up ,so im guessing it jus got stuck onto something on the housing

 

[1991_gsx]

The some thing happen to my i was running my car hard and my manifold was cherry red it freacked me out but its normal. I never heard about turbos locking up it sounds you should upgrade your turbo, do you have any mods??

 

[91eagle_tsi_awd]

nope.just a k&n filter,i already got another turbo,getting it put on tomorrow.and also getting my oil leak fixed too,my mechanic said thats what caused it too get messed up.when was drivin my car wit the turbo messed up the turbine was moving all over the place,sounded like a can with pennies in it.he told me it was gonna lock up soon and it did.so a glowing manifold is normal thanks alot

 

[toshi128]

you might wanna get your i/c cleaned up as well... when my turbo blew, there was a lot of oil in my i/c from the bad turbo.

 

[91eagle_tsi_awd]

ill check dat out too,thanks

 

[97GSTURBO]

You wanna sell your busted @$$ turbo?

 

[Dsmed]

Originally posted by 97GSTURBO
You wanna sell your busted @$$ turbo?

if the compressor wheel got caught on something, chances are it hit the compressor housing and it is now scrap. It would perform better as a paperweight.

 

[JWoodley]

ive got a heatshield off my 2g if you want it.

 

[MircOne16G]

I wouldnt push your car at all if your crankseal is leaking. Also, you might wanna check out your timing belt, oil might be soaked in it.....meaning itll snap soon...Get that seal replaced ASAP....PEACE

 

[91eagle_tsi_awd]

my car is in the shop as we speak getting the seal fixed.my mechanic always told me not to push it because of the leak but im hard headed.he is also replacing my turbo,he told me if i replace the turbo and dont fix the leak its gonna happen again so i might as well fix it now then cry later thanks for the info

 

[91eagle_tsi_awd]

Originally posted by MircOne16G
I wouldnt push your car at all if your crankseal is leaking. Also, you might wanna check out your timing belt, oil might be soaked in it.....meaning itll snap soon...Get that seal replaced ASAP....PEACE

just got the turbo put in and guess wat?my car shut off beacuse my timing snapped from the bottom.u were right.now i gotta hope no valves are bent ,i gotta extra head with all the valves so it wouldnt be costly

 

[diamondstar36]

One of my good friends just bought a '90 Talon Tsi FWD. The car is in excellent condition for a 13 year old car, with 95k on it. We've changed the turbo (to a small 16G) and injectors (510cc yellow tops), but the problem has no changed with these mods. The exhaust housing of the turbo still glows a very bright red with just normal relaxed driving.

My running theories are bad boost leak, oil coating the cooling system, and maybe a blockage in the oil feed line from the head (the oil return line was checked when the turbo was pulled). I'm just curious if anyone else has other ideas to try while we have it down.

 

[Defiant]

Here's another suggestion: turbos always glow. Put the heat shield back on, and don't panic. Let it run while you put up the windshield sun screen, turn off all the accessories, open the door, wait for the belt to get out of the way, and then turn it off.

 

[diamondstar36]

I would do that if it wasn't so bright it lit up the entire engine bay. I've owned 3 seperate 1Gs and worked on probably a dozen others, and NONE of them glowed like this thing does. You can't tell me that is just "normal".