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?

 

[Insane20]

Oh shoot I didnt see you had a non turbo. On a turbo model its normal to have a glowing tubular header because of the turbo of course. On a non turbo I wouldnt think it should be glowing. As said above try to getting those rpms down. And you could still heat rap it if needed, it will reduce engine bay temps.

 

[SALTYPILLOW]

The red color, obviously, is because of the heat. At 3k rpm, the engine is running as if it were cruising on the highway and the header is not getting the higher airflow it would if you were moving down the highway.

In my experience, glowing headers tend to indicate a rich mixture. At 3k rpm with no load, that is very possible.

Glad to hear you got the IAC fixed and keep working to bring the idle down to a reasonable number.

Well another thing about the rich mixture, the headers have oxidized and now have a redish purplish tint to them (which looks awesome) but that might be a sign of rich running as well.

So now begs my next question, how would I possibly get it to run... well less rich?

Also in responce to the running at a high idle, I'm thinking its probably the TPS. So ima change that tomorrow, reset the ecu and see if that fixes it. Hopefully it does cause I don't wanna be doing burnouts whenever I put it in gear...

 

[DogWhistle]

Don't worry about the "richness" until you get the idle situation figured out. They could turn out to be related. Check the idle screw adjustment to be sure it is threaded out, and then check the throttle cable to be sure it is correctly adjusted.

If you are unsure of the operation of your O2 sensor, replace that as well.

Fill out your profile so we can see the equipment you have for future tech help.

 

[SALTYPILLOW]

Don't worry about the "richness" until you get the idle situation figured out. They could turn out to be related. Check the idle screw adjustment to be sure it is threaded out, and then check the throttle cable to be sure it is correctly adjusted.

If you are unsure of the operation of your O2 sensor, replace that as well.

Fill out your profile so we can see the equipment you have for future tech help.

Just adjusted the throttle cable yesterday, it has a slight amount of slack as it should, I am missing the downstream o2 sensor, also just installed the upstream o2, I have the downstream, just gotta splice it back on and install it because when i bought the car the wires for it were cut . One question, what idle screw are you referring to? Do you mean the box for the idle pulleys in the upper passenger side of the engine bay?

 

[pacn91]

timing that is too slow (retarded) can also contribute to glowing headers.

 

[SALTYPILLOW]

timing that is too slow (retarded) can also contribute to glowing headers.

I checked the timing the other day, all is good and running fine. It seems that when it is first started It will idle normally, and even with full load will idle like it should, however as it warms up, the idle slowly creeps up until about 3000rpms where it sits. I had it running today and it was starting to creep up, it got to about 2200rpms on full load (radio, headlights, heat full blast, wipers, 4 way flashers, and cooling fan) and when you turn the loads off one by one, the idle increases with each thing turned off until about 3000rpms where it sits. However the headers weren't glowing today since I had both fans going while idling, then when I turned them off I shut down the car as well. Im thinking since I have a CEL which reads P0505 (Idle Air Control System) and just replaced the IAC motor, its gotta be the TPS that is causing the high idle. I just gotta get some money together and get the new TPS and it should idle correctly after that. Im not 100% sure but I dont think I have a idle screw so thats not it... (Its a 1998 Eclipse GS (N/A)) Also the throttle cable adjustment bracket was just adjusted by me and is where it should be, not too tight and not to loose, just a small amount of slack as there should be. When I fix the idle issues, then the headers shouldn't glow red at idle anymore and my problem is solved. Thank You to everyone that imputted. Ill update you all on if the TPS fixes the idle once I get it and install it...

 

[horizontalkev]

On my 99 GSX.. I was driving down the highway going a steady 80MPH at night for about 20 minutes and after stopping I popped the hood to see my stock exhaust manifold glowing cherry red underneath the heat shield.

I've read that this is normal, while others argue it isnt.. I do run pretty rich according to my poor 15mpg city/19 highway fuel mileage so I shouldn't be lean. My wideband is at the moment disconnected. Normal?

 

[thomcasey]

Through normal driving, no, that isn't normal. You might want to check for exhaust restrictions and hook up the wideband to see how rich you are running.

 

[horizontalkev]

Well I am not running a cat, there's a test pipe in place and my downpipe worked its way loose so I have a decent exhaust leak so a restriction is unlikely. I ordered a new Bosch sensor for my wideband like 3 weeks ago and still hasn't arrived. When it does I'll see if I'm running too rich

 

[ErikTande]

Wouldn't running rich be causing your exhaust to be cooler, not hotter?

 

[boost97gst]

Lean. Check timing as well. Mechanical and spark.
Timing could be retarded a bit. Hard to say without knowing the afrs.

Funny thing about mpg is you can actually be running lean in one cylinder and the others compensating to hit the target will cause terrible mileage. Had a clogged injector in my Lincoln and soon as i fixed it had about 5mpg better performance. Still, in your case i wouldnt think its rich due to the manifold heat.