Thread: glowing pipes 3.9 V8

Originally Posted by mcrover

So did you think to maybe clean out the air cleaner of the bull dust so it wasnt running so rich, I think you would have found that this may have helped your situation.

The old ford V8's (a mate had a 351 windsor in a XYGT replica in prestine condition) had a habbit of doing this when running excessively rich or excessively lean.

A above said GT did a run up though the outback somewhere (I cant remember) when the same happened to him but he was following other cars on one of the charity bashes.

He's a fitter and turner and pretty cluey when it comes to this stuff and when he pulled the cleaner it was chockers with red dust.

They made a make shift snorkle out of poly fittings and pipe and fitted a cyclone type precleaner and all was well after that.

That was my first thought when I pulled up and seen the pipes glowing, filter was OK, no crap at all in it, the chockers insect screen was acting like a pre-cleaner, letting enough air through to breathe and cool the radiator, but that's all, within 45 minutes of cleaning the insect screen floor and firewall temps would rise and the smell of melting underbody tar paint would start to smoulder, stop, shake out the screen and away, no problems for about 40/60 mins. Bulldust was like a wave in front of the wheels, as noted by watching cars going other way. Pipes stopped glowing once on the Bitumen, Regards Frank.

Originally Posted by Tank

Have to disagree, the only time I ever had Glowing exhaust manifolds, was when driving in Bulldust between Julia Ck. and Hughenden in my ZB Fairlane back in the 70's, was cruising at 60mph+ when noticed floor was getting hot and could smell melting tar. Pulled over and lifted bonnet and both exhaust manifolds and exhaust pipes were glowing almost white hot, the insect screen I had stretched across the entire grill was blocked solid with grass seeds and bulldust.
Water temp. was only just a tad above normal and ignition timing was spot on, shook out the screen, reinstalled and drove hard for another hour, noticed heat again and tar smell, lifted bonnet pipes a glowing again.
Had to stop every hour and clean screen till I reached the bitumen road.
So my glowing pipes were not from ignition timing or problems but from restricted air around engine, radiator was getting enough air to survive, Regards Frank.

Well, I can;t argue with that

I've never had it happen to me, a radiator blockage NOT causing the motor to overheat the water but cause it to run with glowing headers

Not that it could of been the lack of air in the engine bay, caused by all the air being sucked in and nothing entering from the front, causing it to run excessively rish or anything

Originally Posted by mcrover

The old ford V8's (a mate had a 351 windsor in a XYGT replica in prestine condition) had a habbit of doing this when running excessively rich or excessively lean.

.

Pretty crappy replica of an XY GT, having a Windsor in it, when it should of been a cleveland

Originally Posted by rovercare

Pretty crappy replica of an XY GT, having a Windsor in it, when it should of been a cleveland

yeah it was originally a fairlane or fair monet or something like that and was the original drive train just all GT get up on the body.

Went pretty well though until he stacked it

Originally Posted by rovercare

Well, I can;t argue with that

I've never had it happen to me, a radiator blockage NOT causing the motor to overheat the water but cause it to run with glowing headers

Not that it could of been the lack of air in the engine bay, caused by all the air being sucked in and nothing entering from the front, causing it to run excessively rish or anything

Radiator was not blocked and water temp rose about 25% above normal, which was dead centre, the insect screen was attached to the outside of the grill, so there was an air gap before the radiator. I believe the "wave of Bulldust" was stopping air going under the front of the car along with the insect causing the glowing pipes, Regards Frank.

You can also wrap the extractors with fibreglass heat wrap. It tames the under bonnet heat. Assumin g of course you've checked all the other factors. I used the wrap on my 85 with perfect results in lowering the cabin floor temp.

Cheers
Jeff