Glowing exhaust manifold

[ronspeedsix]

To prevent top-end from drying out started my Tuscan for a warming up in the garage. When oil was warm I rev'd it up and then I discovered all the exhaust pipes from the manifold were glowing. Even when idling you can see it glow a bit (turned the lights in the garage off).
The cats aren't glowing at all.
In my experience there could be two reasons for glowing : Ignition too late or cats (partly) blocked. Because all the pipes and not bank 1 or bank 2 are glowing I don't suspect the cats at first.

Is this glowing normal and if not, what could be the reason ? Could it be the crank sensor (already cleaned)? I had the laptop connected to the ECU and everything seemed to be OK.

What do you guys think of this ?


Ronald.

[boardinscotland]

Not sure if mine glow or not never checked however here is a pic from the factory.



Hot hot hot comes to mind. So maybe they are supposed to.

G

[froggie]

how new are the manifolds? .I have a Buell (Harley v twin 1200cc ) motorcycle that made the manifolds glow as per pic ,(when labouring hard)after checked timing was OK and only 1 other person had experience of glowing ¬red hot¬ mine had just had new manifold and the other bike was brand new.
after a a few miles she doesn't do it any where near the extent now,the stain "less" manifold has gone a rust sort of color.i blamed it on "crap" quality s,steel.
on the Tuscan a few suffer from heat damage to the fiberglass bonnet above the pipes check you have heat protection under the bonnet and be careful as fiberglass catches fire so easily..

[ronspeedsix]

It's a 2000 MK1 Tuscan and I don't think the manifolds have been renewed.
The glowing at idle is hard to see but it is surely there.

Ronald.

[rens914]

i wouldnt warm up the engine that way again if you want to stay far from a rebuild
it's one of the do not's for a tuscan
there's not enough oil circulation in the cilinder head
concerning the manufold
it's known that the engine runs lean (higher temp)
if you would have a cat-block you would notice this while driving the car but there's nothing wrong with checking them (it's about 1 hours of work). You could check youre frame above the cats in the same time (for burnt paintwork or even rust)
check the spark plugs too
i've seen a lot of cars with the wrong (to hot) plugs.

rens

[ronspeedsix]

Please notice the engine is never left idling when cold. It is rev'd up to 2000 rpm to keep the delicate balance between oil starvation in the head and not damaging bearings/followers because of poor lubrictaion from cold oil.

Spark plugs type now fitted : NGK DCPR8E. Don't know if that's right type.

Wil check the cats later. Too cold new...

Ronald.

[Robertjp]

They are the right plugs.

Blocked CAT is typically what causes that....

[330p4]

Ron these manifolds get bloody hot i suspect because the car is staionary with no airflow over them noticeable on a lot of engines when on an engine dyno
Ian

[ronspeedsix]

Because all the elbows of the manifold are glowing my first guess it's not the cats. Would be a real coincidence having two cats blocked at the same time. In that case I would expect the cats to glow, not the manifold.

Will check the cats later en let you know then.


Ronald.

[parke]

It's a long time ago now (05/06) but even after a "standard" run in the Sagaris (I was still running her in), the manifolds would start to glow. The heat coming out of the gap between bonnet and windscreen was enough to fry your sausages!! I'm not going to say it's normal, but certainly did no damage to the car (although I'd keep a regular check on heat damage within the engine bay just to make sure).

[ronspeedsix]

Thanks parke for the reply. It looks like no one can say whether glowing is normal or not. Consider it now to be normal.

Ronald.

[ronspeedsix]

Took the cats off today and found them OK. So again considering glow in the dark to be normal.

Ronald