glowing turbo...

CarPsyco84 · 02-09-2005

yeah, i just got off the freeway, and went to this gas station and went to pull out some cash, right, and for some reason I decided to pop my hood, and when I did, I imediatly noticed that my turbo and exhaust manifold was glowing... pretty normal after I beat on it, but not for just cruzin at 70mph... I don't have any shields on the exhaust either, cause iv'e been to lazy to put them on... I've hacked my lower honey comb in my MAF... should I be worrying about this much heat?

dylan · 02-10-2005

Yeah that is definatly a bad sign.

john · 02-10-2005

Glowing???? BS. That would mean that it is close to melting temp. I would not worry as I have never heard of a turbo or manifold melting. You would have to worry about the aluminum head melting first. Throwing the heat shields on will just "hide" the "glowing" from you and make the turbo and mani hotter by keeping the heat in. It is a good idea to throw them on as may have a small affect on your intake temps.

Matt D. · 02-10-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlos

Glowing???? BS. That would mean that it is close to melting temp. I would not worry as I have never heard of a turbo or manifold melting. You would have to worry about the aluminum head melting first. Throwing the heat shields on will just "hide" the "glowing" from you and make the turbo and mani hotter by keeping the heat in. It is a good idea to throw them on as may have a small affect on your intake temps.

You've never seen a turbo and manifold glow? Bahaha... Yeah, they're going to melt, sag and fall right off the car!

TheBlizzard · 02-10-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlos

Glowing???? BS. That would mean that it is close to melting temp.

You have never seen a manifold glow before? I have seen this numerous times at night after hammering on my car before I parked it and popping the hood. Just go out and do a WOT 2nd and 3rd gear pull at night, then stop and pop the hood, your manifold will be nice and red.

But what I think he is getting at is the reason why it is glowing after cruising at highway speeds and not being under heavy load. Your EGTs must be really high or something because your manifold shouldn't be glowing just driving around.

What are your mods by the way? This will help find you why this is happening.

CRAIG

Anduinlight · 02-10-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlos

Glowing???? Throwing the heat shields on will just "hide" the "glowing" from you and make the turbo and mani hotter by keeping the heat in. It is a good idea to throw them on as may have a small affect on your intake temps.

I though that the heat shields were fairly good at dissipating the heat around the manifold.

SuperSleeper · 02-11-2005

The heat shields are exactly that... they protect their surroundings from being directly exposed. That doesn't mean that the heat just vanishes though... it has to go somewhere.

I've seen manifolds glow before... and I imagine the turbine housing can glow with not much more work. But I have a hard time believing the compressor housing was glowing. You didn't mean the ENTIRE turbo was glowing, did you?

Either way, something must be wrong if it's happening without much effort. I'd get an EGT gauge to monitor it. Might be being caused by a bad air/fuel mixture.

CarPsyco84 · 02-11-2005

yeah, the whole cast iron part is what glows, mostly right around where the 4 single headers converge into the turbo, and then the exhaust side of the turbo... its not like SUPER RED GONNA MELT OFF, but its definatly cherry red, in the middle. Seems excessively hot to me, considering I wasn't beating on it, I wish i could afford a EGT gauge, but alas, my galant VR4 tranny I am getting saturday is slightly more important right now. as for how modifyed my car is, I have a 2.75" peiece of pipe bolted to my O2 houseing and i've ported the turbine housing and O2 housing SOME, not all that huge, the biggest thing i guess is that I a 2g manifold and after I took it home I realized it was ported for a big 16G, (7cm opening) so I ported my 14b to match it, other than that, nothin, it runs good, stock computer, no SAFC, I've turned up the boost some, but I didn't think that applied cause I wasn't boosting at the time, and I don't have a CNEL light either,

**JET** · 02-11-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlos

Glowing???? BS. That would mean that it is close to melting temp. I would not worry as I have never heard of a turbo or manifold melting. You would have to worry about the aluminum head melting first. Throwing the heat shields on will just "hide" the "glowing" from you and make the turbo and mani hotter by keeping the heat in. It is a good idea to throw them on as may have a small affect on your intake temps.

Hahahaaa!! That's awesome!! HORT's tech guy at his finest

Do you realize that most material will glow at the same temperature? Red hot cast iron will be the same temperature as red hot stainless (if they are the same red). It doesn't have anything to do with their melting temperature.

It is pretty common to see the manifold glowing after cruising on the highway. Most people do some in town driving after they come off the highway and that helps to cool it down. I wouldn't worry about it a lot with a mitsu turbo, they do fine for a long time on people's cars that don't even know what the turbo looks like.

ABV · 02-11-2005

If you want to see something really cool, dump a big glass of water onto a glowing red turbo.

*disclaimer* Don't actually do that.

john · 02-11-2005

[QUOTE=JET]Do you realize that most material will glow at the same temperature? Red hot cast iron will be the same temperature as red hot stainless (if they are the same red). It doesn't have anything to do with their melting temperature.
QUOTE]

Aluminum will glow at the same temp as Cast huh??? The only experience I have with metals is torch and wire feed. Now I am not sure what all of you call "glowing." I call "glowing" what you see right before the metal melts. I have never seen mine glow and I have gone to 1700 degrees on my egt on the initial tune last year (my guess, I went past the needle a ways on my autometer gauge). Putting on the heat shields will only keep the heat in causing it to get hotter that it currently is. What is boost at? Cruising at highway speeds, it does not take much work to spool a small turbo (14b) especially if you are in the right gear. What feels normal on the gas pedal can be shooting you to 20 psi quite easily.

Matt D. · 02-11-2005

Aluminum never glows, it just melts.

**JET** · 02-11-2005

Yes, aluminum would glow at the same temperature as cast, if it did not melt before it got to that temperature. This is a simple concept, how can it be that hard to grasp??

As far as glowing, it means to give off light without a flame. Such as; glowing cherry red or glowing white hot.

glow ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gl)
intr.v. glowed, glow·ing, glows

1. To shine brightly and steadily, especially without a flame:

2. To have a bright, warm, usually reddish color:

Therefore, a manifold would be glowing if it was giving off light.

ABV · 02-11-2005

The following information is straight from The Machinery's Handbook, 25th Edition. Pages 369 and 370

Melting Point (Luiqidus)
Aluminum Alloy "5086" 1,085 F
Cast Iron "A536" 2,100 F

It didn't say anything about "Glowing" Temperatures though.

TheBlizzard · 02-11-2005

I am playing Need For Speed Underground 2 and I have a question regarding all of this glowing talk. There are these things glowing from under my Supra, I was wondering if my car was going to melt or not?

CRAIG

SuperSleeper · 02-11-2005

Same with my RX7!! Oh shit, I better go get it fixed... it's my fastest car!

CarPsyco84 · 02-11-2005

Cast Iron starts emiting light around 1000F, a really dull red, but by 1600F its a bright yellow. I was thinking my manifold was clockin in at the 1000-1200 degree range... not like super hot, but for that thick cast iron manifold to get to that temp, w/o those shields on at 70mph, seems excessive.... and it never saw boost the whole way home, I had the cruze control on for 14 miles, and the boost gauge never went above -5psi...

SuperSleeper · 02-11-2005

Normal cruising temperature is around 1200F, so that would be about right if the light #s are correct.

And -5 would be in.hg, not psi.

CarPsyco84 · 02-11-2005

alright, I figured it couldn't have been too bad since it hasn't siezed yet... but just surprised more people haven't noticed this before...

tpunx99GSX · 02-11-2005

Ive lit my ciggerette off of my manifold once, very nice party favor.
wanna see something cooler, lets see your brakes do this :

That is right after a canyon run 35 degree drops, hairpin turns, and not being able to stop at the end and almost crashing into for friends car. WOOT.