Engine worries

[CHIMV8 500]

Mate of mine has a standard model 400 engine.

Its been running beautifully for years,and last week he parked her up in his garage after a run out.

Yesterday he started her up and she was running rough,so he thought she would be ok after she had warmed up.

After a few minutes he had to pull over as smoke was appearing from the engine bay.

To his surprise there was intensive heat coming from the engine to the point,the cable ties holding the induction heat shield had melted and scorched the material,and the wires coming from the swirl pot had also melted,obviously he took her straight back to his garage,and still running rough.

No leaks of coolant or oil to be found anywhere,and nothing looked out of the ordinary.

He hasn't tried to start her up again in case of damage

Anyone got a clue

[Engineer1949]

could be timing gone very retarded takes seconds to overheat the manifolds if this is the case or running very lean or both


john

[Classic Chim]

I'm assuming the smoke was burning cable ties or fallen wiring hitting exhaust manifold.
Before starting the engine he should check his water levels when stone cold and possibly bleed the system. If the expansion tank runs dry it will draw air into the cooling system when it cools down after a run and cause you over heating issues the next time you use it.

What did his temp gauge read, if it was low there's a good chance of air in the system.
Coolant temp sensor might be getting inaccurate readings so causing the rough running but I'd look closely at any wiring that might have been damaged by the melted cable ties first as that might just be the problem.