Glowing Turbo and Manifold

[BrianM]

Took the car out for a little ride this evening and ran into a bit of an issue. The car was running great, spirited drive of about 15 minutes. Great boost ran strong but I started to smell a little oil so I pulled into a parking lot to check things out. I've been trying to track down a small oil leak so I wanted to see if I could get a better idea of where it was coming from. So I pop the hood and I see the back of the turbo and back of the manifold glowing red. I also noticed that my 1" hose coming off the intercooler for the bypass valve had come loose from the nipple.

Would the bypass hose coming loose cause the glowing turbo and manifold? Car never missed a beat and I never heard any detonation but I am assuming a boost leak was causing it to run lean thus heating up exhaust gases? Is this reasonable logic?

Looks like my oil leak was coming from the dip stick under boost. Going to replace the PCV valve tomorrow and see if that solves my oil leak problem. The passenger side and turbo lines are all clean as well as the cam cover. Wet in the area under the dipstick and blown back under the car.

[86svo9l]

Turbo had to be working HARD to boost with a 1" hole open to the atmosphere. It was probably spinning well outside its operating max. You may also want to look into a catch can along with bigger diameter hose to get that blowby under control.

[BrianM]

It hadn't completely blown off but the clamp had slipped and the hose was about half way down the barb and barely hanging on there. I was driving the car fairly hard but nothing crazy. Still running only stock 15 psi boost with stock boost controller. Only mods to the car are the CAI, tcoupe intercooler and bypass valve. I got a chirp from the over boost buzzer once.

I pushed the hose back on and tightened the clamp before I drove it easy home. No glow when I got to the house.

[86svo9l]

You could have been running a little lean from the vac leak if thats the case. Whats your timing set at?

[BrianM]

I just checked it last week (maybe driven the car 25 miles since then) and it was to spec running exactly 10 btc with the spout out.

I guess the turbo may very well have still been working extra hard to overcome the leak from the bypass hose.

Ive only driven the car a couple,of time since I installed the bypass valve. Last time I drove it I double checked the hoses when zi got home so this one blew loose on this drive.

[86svo9l]

Best bet now that the leak is fixed is to check it and see if the problem still exists after a spirited drive. If it does there could be other things, such as weak fuel pump, clogged fuel filter, etc.

[BrianM]

Shouldn't be pump or filter. I just installed a Walbro 255 and new fuel filter a few weeks ago (less than 100 miles). I was getting a stumble and loss of fuel pressure before I did the install. Since I did the new fuel pump the car has been running awesome.

I went back through and tightened all of my hose clamps. I'll go out for another drive tomorrow and hopefully the glow doesn't return.

[86svo9l]

Sounds like you are set up pretty well. Good luck and hopefully the issue is gone!

[BrianM]

Thanks for your help. I think you confirmed my conclusion that the loose bypass hose was most probably the root of my problem

[Patrick]

1500 degrees EGT is very common when you have the foot down. A glowing turbine housing and exhaust manifold should be expected within less than a minute of WOT driving. I bet that there are plenty of neat Youtube videos of dyno runs that have a perfectly well running engine doing the same thing.

[vrinner]

During racing conditions the turbo would constantly glow red after coming in to the pits. I've heard this is fairly normal.

[BrianM]

I am less worried about it after reading a bunch about this condition. I was running the car fairly hard and when I popped the hood it was twilight. So with low light and the hard running this is the first time I have opened up the hood and poked my head in.

I'll keep my eye on things. The car was running great so I'm not overly worried just new to this turbo thing so wanting to learn as I find.

[GLASSMAN]

should be able to lite a smoke off the exhaust side of the turbo after a spirited run

[MikeFleming]

Hopefully you're familiar with temps versus color of glow.

On a completely stock engine: 950-1100 F idling, warmed up

Full chat - WOT for more than ten seconds = 1650 F. A nice bright red if held long enough for the manifold to get that hot.

So depending on the amount of power used - and for how long - low red color is not abnormal.

Lean mixtures can increase EGT maybe 100-200 F, while retarded timing can increase it 500+F (a VERY bad thing).

[BrianM]

I feel better. It was just a light red glow. First time I had seen it so I panicked a bit.

[Chalky]

Yeah no worries there. My Dad and I did a spirited(!!!!) run through Bryce Canyon in Utah on our way back from "some" car show. Stopped for a quick night photo opportunity and checked the engine. You coulda' read a newspaper from the turbo/ manifold glow.

Good times:):):)

[Duck]

When mine was stock with an exhaust, downpipe, and Bob's log, my turbine housing and log would glow after a 20 minute drive on the highway going 70.

[65ShelbyClone]

This is fairly indicative of what ~1.5 minutes of 7% grade at 60mph does for my stock SVO.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v521/65ShelbyClone/Public/Car%20Stuff/29f5429a.jpg

It makes me wonder what it looked like after going up 12mi of the Grapevine at 70mph in 5th...

[MikeFleming]

Get a GoPro and stick it under the hood near the radiator or on the back of the air cleaner housing (where it's relatively cool). Then do a 20 minute track session. There will be more than enough light from the manifold/turbo to get good video.