Header Glow While Charging A/C

Dirtbuster1

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May 13, 2008
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Georgia
I was playing with the charge on my A/C again today. While charging the A/C at 2000 RPM I noticed that my headers were glowing red. My exhaust tubes did the same before changing them. This time it appears that I burnt the coating off of the headers. Something doesn't seem right here?

I also changed the ECM yesterday, since I have a spare. The engine is running rough at idle, & seems to spit & stall at a red light. I am not getting any codes. The ECM did not fix the problem. I probably need to go back and check the CTS to see if it's not getting a good connection again, or check to see if the timing might be off. It's just to hot to get motivated to do any work on the car.

Thoughts!
 
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2k rpm passes a lot of gas and fire through the exhaust for just sitting there, with no real air circulation around the mani's....

but to tell the truth with say a ram's horn stockish exhaust, they glow red and even into orange with a hard run.....pop the hood on a dark night to see, you will be amazed....

:shocking::shocking::shocking:

now running leaner mixes makes it even hotter, and I noticed it really easy when running DPFI on my stockish L98 engine,.....

running rich apparently is not as hot on the pipes, which makes no sense to me, but just is....apparently....

:shocking::banghead:
 
Lean is hotter than rich. A lean exhaust will cook the headers, and eventually the valves. Lean makes more efficent combustion. A rich exhaust will cool everything from the unburned fuel passing thru..
 
Lean is hotter than rich. A lean exhaust will cook the headers, and eventually the valves. Lean makes more efficent combustion. A rich exhaust will cool everything from the unburned fuel passing thru..


Tim when I get done screwing around and put the motor togeather I hope you are in the area. I think for break in I will use the magna flow exhust then change to hookers

just in case of over heat. Don't want to blue the pipes right away...
 
Ok guys, lean is what I'm thinking. With the ECM on a CFI, what I'm I to do? After the motor cooled down I checked the CTS & the TPS. They seem to be ok. However my problem with with the AIC motors seem to have raised its head again. The rear TBI seems to be closed, & the front TBI appears to be open. I will probably manually reset them again tommorow with the new ECM to see what happens.

Should I have cooked the ceramic coating off of the headers while charging the A/C at 2000 RPM's? They are brand new!
 
Lean is hotter than rich. A lean exhaust will cook the headers, and eventually the valves. Lean makes more efficent combustion. A rich exhaust will cool everything from the unburned fuel passing thru..


Tim when I get done screwing around and put the motor togeather I hope you are in the area. I think for break in I will use the magna flow exhust then change to hookers just in case of over heat. Don't want to blue the pipes right away...

I dont know about everyone, but Jet-Hot recommends not starting a new engine with new headers because of the possibility of heat from the new engine cooking the coating. That will probably be a good idea to start with the Magnaflow and then swap after you get it dialed in..
 
Ok guys, lean is what I'm thinking. With the ECM on a CFI, what I'm I to do? After the motor cooled down I checked the CTS & the TPS. They seem to be ok. However my problem with with the AIC motors seem to have raised its head again. The rear TBI seems to be closed, & the front TBI appears to be open. I will probably manually reset them again tommorow with the new ECM to see what happens.

Should I have cooked the ceramic coating off of the headers while charging the A/C at 2000 RPM's? They are brand new!

Check the timing too- if it's retarded it can do that too. from the standpoint of being able to have 100% control over mixture and timing those early ECM's kind of stink. (IMHO) there's a procedure to balance the TB's- that may be a contributor to your hot exhaust too.
 
I have had the motor running since January. I have probably around 100 hours of run time before installing the new headers last month. IT has been driven around 500 miles since getting it all back together. I think I set the timing is at 8 degrees BTDC. The TBI were rebuilt & balanced. This CFI is starting to piss me off.:bomb: It looks like every header pipe with the exception of number 1 has burnt the coating off. These are the Hedman Elite headers. They will probably laugh at me if I call them about the coating burning off.:lol:
 
I used to set my Winfields by ear on a Model T Speedster with a custom header. I can assure you, at night, if you are lean or retarded, it will get red hot in a hurry. To retarded, and the gas passes out while still burning. Too lean, and the gas burns much hotter.
Most header manufactureres recommend break in and tuning while on the old system first, just because of these reasons.
It seems to me the 8* comp control is correct. As for the TBI crap, Marck knows more.
 
They might laugh, but if you get them recoated before they get rusty, I bet they'll be good as new.
 
Jeff has a guy there in CA that does a very nice job of coating :phone: he can even do the whole car :eek:
 
1st thanks for the help!

Today I checked the CTS again after I put it in the fridge, it's ok. I reset the AIC motors to the 11/8", this is a little less than suggested. Checked the timing and it was ok. The engine is now running better at idle. I think I over charged the AC with a little more gas than it needed. :smash: I think that to much pressure was really lugging the engine down. With a hunch from other people's problems, I took the AC shut off valve to test. 25" of vacuum and it was wide open. I went to Oreillys and got a manual 5/8" valve. Now the AC is starting to cool. :trumpet: I will let gas out bit by bit until I find that optimal setting.

I think I'm going to call Hedman about the coating to see what they say.

Kevin,

I thought that everyone had a tune up clinic at Jeff's house last Friday. Did he forget to check out his car.:stirpot: What hurts the most after your trip to Ca. The back or the wallet.
 
1st thanks for the help!

Today I checked the CTS again after I put it in the fridge, it's ok. I reset the AIC motors to the 11/8", this is a little less than suggested. Checked the timing and it was ok. The engine is now running better at idle. I think I over charged the AC with a little more gas than it needed. :smash: I think that to much pressure was really lugging the engine down. With a hunch from other people's problems, I took the AC shut off valve to test. 25" of vacuum and it was wide open. I went to Oreillys and got a manual 5/8" valve. Now the AC is starting to cool. :trumpet: I will let gas out bit by bit until I find that optimal setting.

I think I'm going to call Hedman about the coating to see what they say.

Kevin,

I thought that everyone had a tune up clinic at Jeff's house last Friday. Did he forget to check out his car.:stirpot: What hurts the most after your trip to Ca. The back or the wallet.

Yeah,Jeff was having to much fun rodding Heart Attack around town,that he forgot to check over his own ride :cussing:
Thats right i let Jeff drive my car :amazed: took him a couple of min's to get use to it,then he was running it up to rev limiter :eek: I looked over at him a couple of times and he had this big smile on his face :bounce:

Back or wallet :surrender: they are both hurting pretty good from the trip. All the driving did make my back achey and stirred up a few problems.
I don't know if my wallet will recoupe,diesel was pretty exspensive and over $5 buck's in CA,and it seemed like when i was pulling the trailer i was either against a strong headwind or driving through rain storms.
I still managed to avg 10.6mpg though,that's not to bad. But i knew the fuel bill would be big for this trip so i saved up quite a bit of money for that,lodging and food was very reasonable.
With that said,i'm already saving for next year :bounce:
Is next year here yet :bump:
 
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