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?

 

[oldman]

I could still pull out the dip stick, it just made it more snug.

Dipstick popping is a way for the motor to tell you something is wrong, usually excessive crankcase pressure. Exessive crankcase pressure is usually caused by poor crankcase ventilation, excessive blow by or boost leaks. Making the dipstick snug, as you put it, without first troubleshoot and resolve the source of this excessive crankcase pressure will force oil/pressure to find other ways out, seals and gaskets which includes the turbo.

 

[surel0ser]

Dipstick popping is a way for the motor to tell you something is wrong, usually excessive crankcase pressure. Exessive crankcase pressure is usually caused by poor crankcase ventilation, excessive blow by or boost leaks. Making the dipstick snug, as you put it, without first troubleshoot and resolve the source of this excessive crankcase pressure will force oil/pressure to find other ways out, seals and gaskets which includes the turbo.

Yeah luckily my dip stick hasn't popped out at all. However on my instrument cluse I have this light on that I have no clue what the heck it is. It looks like a carasel, its retangular with bars and has a little tip on it. Please somone what the heck is it?

 

[prplhz96]

low coolant in the resivoir(sp.)

 

[oldman]

Yeah luckily my dip stick hasn't popped out at all. However on my instrument cluse I have this light on that I have no clue what the heck it is. It looks like a carasel, its retangular with bars and has a little tip on it. Please somone what the heck is it?

That's the Lincoln Memorial. Check your coolant level, it's a picture of the radiator.

 

[surel0ser]

That's the Lincoln Memorial. Check your coolant level, it's a picture of the radiator.

Checked the coolant level, even flushed the radiator and filled it back up. Light is still coming on and off.

 

[boostedinaz]

Clean out the overflow bottle. The sensor for that light is at the bottom of that. Sometimes even with water in the tank it will come on if there is a bunch of crap in the sensor.

 

[90awdt]

after i drive my car i pop the hood and i notice that the header and the turbo are glowing red like its getting really hot but the temp gauge says its not over heating. One my friends that has a dsm told me that its alright that its doing that... is that true....
thanks
john

 

[1993eclipseGS]

Drive up a hill at nite or do a long drive and pop the hood, You will see the same thing.

 

[90awdt]

so you think its fine that there glowing?

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

It's normal. Just means you are working the car hard. Make sure whenever it gets that bad that you allow for adequite cool down time. Let it idle down for 3 or 4 minutes if you don't already have a turbo timer. That is how people ruin seals within 5000 miles.

 

[99gst_racer]

That is completely normal. I searched "glowing manifold" and came up with an endless amount of results. Please use the search function before posting questions.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130399&highlight=glowing+manifold

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193802&highlight=glowing+manifold

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197706&highlight=glowing+manifold

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198706&highlight=glowing+manifold

 

[Ultimatedsm]

Hey guys how are you doing? Well I had a exciting trip to school today, was on the highway for an hour. When I got home, some of the AC Fan fins have melted. Then I looked closer and saw my o2 housing was glowing red, this was right off the highway, however, my exhaust manifold was fine, not even close to red.

I did a boost leak test and found out that at 6 psi, the passenger side far left injector seal was leaking. How did I find out? Well once the compressor was going, I made my girlfriend check my boost gauge. The gauge read 1....2....3...(Starting to hear a little hiss)...4....5....6 psi..(Loud hiss) and it wouldn't go higher then 6 psi (Compressor is a little small).

I checked my intercooler pipes and they were fine no leaks. Then I was feeling around the fuel injector area with my finger and I can feel a bit of pressure leaking out of the injector seal, thats not good. Turbo reaches 10 psi then spikes to 15 psi closer to redline, sometimes I would hit fuel cut in first (Maybe leak).

I kind of noticed a delay and thought it was normal. When I would go part throttle and hit lets say 6 psi, it woundn't go anywhere, its like it wasn't even boosting at all but the gauge reads 6 psi, then suddenly it hits and It goes. I think the turbo is over running itself. Now my question is, what can cause ONLY the o2 housing to glow red plus melt part of my AC fan? Thanks for your help guys.

- Ultimatedsm

 

[Lordpaxin]

you could be running lean or rich in that cyl.
not sure which one.

id get that fixed

 

[Ultimatedsm]

I am only running 10 psi then spikes to 15 on a 14B and I have a walbro 255LPH. Injector duty cycler never go higher then 94% when hitting 15 psi. Can I have some more expert advice please.

I guess driving at 140KPH doesn't help with temperatures either, it was a hard run so I expect something to get red. I think I should put my heat shields back in because my AC fan a few of the fins got melted. I am just wondering why didn't my exhaust manifold turn red, only my o2 housing, can the turbo be spinning too fast?

 

[VelocitàPaola]

you could be running lean or rich in that cyl.
not sure which one.

id get that fixed

He's probably running lean; that's usually the cause for hotter cylinder conditions.

 

[Ultimatedsm]

If I was running lean my exhaust manifold would be cherry red, but it is not my exhaust manifold only my o2 housing and thats it.

 

[VelocitàPaola]

I checked your profile, but I didn't see what I was looking for: do you have both the stock O2 housing and manifold on there?

A glowing O2 housing could still be an indication of lean conditions; the manifold, being significantly larger, has a higher specific heat capacity - so, it would take higher temperatures before it began to glow (in daylight at least).

 

[Ultimatedsm]

The glow was in a dark garage with not too much light. I think my theory is because of the boost leak, the turbo has to spin faster to keep up with the boost which causes more heat. The manifold wasn't red at all which means the motor itself isn't running lean but the turbo is just spinning faster then it should due to the leak at 6 psi. I just need someone to back this up and if thats possible.

Stock 2g Manifold and stock o2 housing. The exhaust housing is ported on the turbo.

 

[VelocitàPaola]

No, it doesn't work like that. The turbo doesn't have anything that it's trying to "keep up with." Even though the turbine physically propels the compressor; how fast the turbine spins is a function of how fast the compressor is spinning. If there is a boost leak, less air is flowing in the engine, which means there's going to be less exhaust, and thus, the turbine will actually spin slower.

If you just barely saw it glow, then I wouldn't worry about it too much (although the melting fan is cause for concern). Keep in mind, though, that many exhaust components closer to the block can be seen glowing when ambient light is low.

In any case, do a boost leak test and fix any leaks you have. Also, replace that injector seal. You may not be getting enough fuel in that cylinder, which will in fact, make you run lean. Report back and let us know how everything goes. Good luck.

 

[Ultimatedsm]

I ordered the injector seals that go into the engine. Anyway, about me not getting enough fuel in that cylinder, wouldn't a boost leak cause a rich condition because there is less air in there?

The MAF detects a certain amount of air which then shoves it in the turbo then into the intercooler to all the piping to the throttlebody and finally into the engine. If the MAF detects a certain amount of air but at 6 psi the injector seal is leaking, wouldn't it be less air into the cylinder but then the ECU doesn't detect the leak and just shoves the same amount of fuel which I believe becomes richer. Can you explain how a boost leak would cause a lean mixture?

 

[VelocitàPaola]

Oh no, you're quite right. A boost leak would indeed cause a rich mixture, but a leaky injector seal would do the opposite. If all of your fuel is leaking out, then obviously you'll start to run lean. The O2 sensor is supposed to tell the ECU there's a problem, which means it will most likely compensate by dumping more fuel - but it can only compensate like this to a point (by the way, are you getting any CELs, or no?).

I also just noticed that you said it was the injector on the far left (passenger's side) that was leaking. If I remember correctly, that injector is first in line to get fuel; meaning, if fuel is leaking from there, all the rest of the injectors are probably starving too. If that's the case, then all cylinders are running lean. You don't have a wideband or an EGT gauge do you, because they'd certainly help right about now.

 

[Ultimatedsm]

There is no fuel leak, only an air leak. I was probing my finger around the fuel injector area when I put compressed air into the intercooler piping. I could hear the air rush into the piping and suddenly I started to hear a hiss. I put my fingers one by one around the fuel injector area where finally I felt the air pushing out of either a fuel injector seal or I can be mistaken and it could come from the intake manifold but that would really make my car run like shit.

1. No fuel leak
2. Air is coming out of the passenger side or 1st fuel injector area
3. O2 housing glowing but not exhaust manifold
4. Only getting a CEL for my alternator connection or something which I will be taking a look (No charging problems whatsoever).

 

[MrBoxx]

The reason your O2 sensor housing was glowing and not your manifold is because all the exhaust from 4 runners was getting dumped into that one small confined space. Your manifold shouldn't get red-hot even if you are running lean, so don't worry about it. A turbine housing and 02 sensor housing getting red, that's fine and normal for long highway drives and hard, fast runs. Put your heat shields back on and you won't have the melting fan problem anymore.

 

[franks90tsi]

i think i might have a blown head gasket cause my engine is running insanely hot and my maniflod and my turbo glow bright orange and when i down shift and let it rev out it back fires loud by the way i am running a 16g evoIII on a 1g 90 eagle talon tsi if any one could help me i would be so thankfull

thanks
frank

 

[4BangR-x]

If anything is glowing, it is very very VERY hot. What are you doing when this happens?