I posted in another forum but figured maybe this forum would be better for this subject.

I have a single turbo stang that I just finished putting back together. After running at idle for a few mins my left and right bank headers were starting to glow red.

Now I have been through this before and it was retarded timing. But not this time.

I know my timing is perfect and synced with my AEM stand alone. But I still have glowing headers after being on idle. My wideband stays around 14-15 the whole time idling. The only things that were changed since it last ran was - All headers, turbine housing, downpipe were ceramic coated w/exhaust rap on everything and new 60lb injectors.

I rescaled my fuel map to accept the new injectors and my A/F ratio is good. I need to drive this car to the tune shop and its not close. I am afraid to run it over there and run the risk of a fire!

My main question was regarding the gas. I took my line off and ran the pump and the gas is a yellow orange color. I will be replacing this ASAP regardless, but can old gas cause this issue.

NOTE: My timing is perfect - my balancer is good(not shifted). And my A/f is good. Before this I did 600 to the wheels with none of the noted issues.

Thanks

 

Just a thought.. and it might be far out there, but if the gas is that old, and it can't get a complete burn in the cylinder, after idling for a few minutes it is probably building up in the headers and the rest is being burned off there instead of in the cylinder. Just drain your gas out, and run some fresh fuel in there, it's easy enough to do.

 

Yeah I was thinking the same thing BUT - is this thought "really" something that could happen - I will drain the gas regardless of course. I hope thats it....

 

Something is off... either time timing is way retarded, or the afr is too rich.

Double check everything

 

I don't think it's the gas. You said the headers are glowing red, but that you also have everything ceramic coated? What parts are coated and what is bare? Coatings can really contain heat and allow an uncoated section to be alot higher temperature than surrounding area... especially if it's at the collector.

 

I wish either one of those were the case, but timing and a/f is perfect. I have timed this car hundreds of times with no issues and I even adjusted my a/f at around 13.5 to see if it would cool it down..... This really sucks. Im hoping by ceramic coating everything and wraping it is not causing this.

I want to set my distrib to 15 deg and have the spout out to see if maybe the AEM is the culprit.

 

The complete set of headers, crosspipe, turbo housing and downpipe were done. No exposed areas of bare metal anymore.

 

The amount of heat that this is putting off is crazy. Dont want to put the hood on it is so hot.

 

Your timing has to be completely fucked or you have an exhaust valve sticking. No way a proper combustion could get that damn hot at idle. I know you say the timing is perfect, but people go over simple things like plug wire order 100 times before finally realizing they have a couple swapped.

 

Try advancing the timing 15* or so and see if it goes away. I know I know.. Timing is perfect. But humor me on this one.

 

Dont get me wrong I would LOVE for it to be just a timing issue....

I just took both valve covers off(one was leaking on my cherry red cross pipe!) to fix an oil leak. Since I have the covers off, I am going to do my valve lash over again.... I did just under 2/3rd of a turn before. I am going to do just a 1/4 turn this time (I am hoping that maybe my valves were open too far - too much adj on rockers.) I will update everyone once I get this back together.

Could that be a possible senario???? If my exhaust/intake valve was not seating and then on the compression stroke push some of the raw fuel in the header and then when it fires it will have raw fuel to burn in the tubes.......

I am shooting for something, this has me realy stuck. It is bothering so much that I am dreaming about my motor issues!!!!

Mike

 

A partially open exhaust valve will definitely heat up the exhaust like a mofo.

 

have you ran race gas on the w/b 02 sensor that is giving you these readings ?

 

True that..... hmy:

 

Well I got the rockers adj to 1/4 turn and everthing back together - NO LUCK!. It is still making the pipes glow. It was worth a shot.

So back to the drawing board for me >

What other component will cause a late timing, even though my light/balancer is saying the correct time? I have once again checked wires and time - all good.

BTW I have not advance the timing yet a few deg and locked my distrib so it only runs off of that. I will try those out a little later.

Thanks

Mike

 

No race gas what so ever. If I ran bad gas before, could that have messed my 02 up?

 

when you time the car with the aem do you:

1 start car
2 remove spout plug and set balancer to 10 *btdc with timing light
3 reinstall spout plug
4 open the timing sync box
5 set timingon balancer with timing light to what is displayed on the box using adjustment arrows (i usually lock timing in the box to 20* so i can see the mark easier)
6 select ok and now timing is correctly sync'd


you can also remove the #1 plug and rotate the crank to where it reads 0 on the balancer. while doing this stick a screwdriver into thespark plug hole to verify that as the piston comes up to tdc and the balancer gets closer to 0 the screwdriver will keep pushing out of the spark plug hole. CAREFUL NOT TO GET IT STUCK ! so when the screwdriver stops pushing out and the balancer reads 0 you know you are at tdc and your balancer is still correct.

also you are using the firing order of 13726548. i had a similar issue when i first started with these cars. i used the standard 302 firing order and not the 302HO order.... cost me a LOT of headaches damn rookie

 

Yup that is how I have always timed this car. Just to state, I have had this AEM for 3 years now and never had issues with the timing getting set. I have had some issues with sync via MX TIME but thats different.

The AEM is reading the same as my balancer. This is just strange.

Thanks

Mike

 

I'm a complete newbie so if this if far out ignore it i guess. But any chance of a major exhaust blockage some where now? since the only thing you say has changed was removing hot side for coating then putting it back on. Other than that to much a newb to help. carry on

 

Any help no matter what is appreciated

But before installing everything I had already checked to see if everything is clear (During/after the coating they run the parts in beads). Had some beads left over but cleared them out.

Thanks
Mike