New GW stainless headers glowing red within 1 min at idle.

[gyoung10]

I am finishing a full resto on a 1991 Syncro Tristar. I have a fresh 2.2 MV with AMC heads. I replaced the injectors, distributor and a new ICV and ICM. It idles at about 1000-1100 rpms and after a minute or so the stainless headers on both sides glow bright orange. I called GW and they said it is normal. I have never seen this before. Anyone else have seen this? Any thoughts?

[Jeff's Old Volks Home]

Normal... Don't worry about it. I've installed tons of them. I was worried at first but 20000km later it's still all good.
Jeff
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2004 Jetta TDi Wagon
2002 Smyth Ute TDi
1990 Vanagon weekender Syncro AAZ
1987 Syncro Doka AAZ...soon to be TDI
2014 DL650ABS Xpedition
1986 Weekender Syncro (Under construction)
1987 Westfalia (Under construction)
1987 Syncro Single cab

[insyncro]

I really like the headers and have wrapped them from the flange just past the tight bends.

Others have posted the same.

Since you have a new distributor, double check the timing.

[bluebus86]

I have never seen any wasserboxer part glow red from heat. I would think your mixture may not be correct. Unless the headers are paper thin, I would not expect them to glow red. My exhaust is stock so I cant comment much on stainless steel headers. Are you running a catalyst? if so is it getting real hot too?

can you test the mixture with an exhaust sniffer prior to catalyst? Can your get a reading form your oxygen sensor? Could your oxygen sensor be screwed up and not detecting mixture correctly, thus telling the brain to make the mixture wrong?

If the header pipes are red hot near where they bolt to the head I'd be very worried, as aluminum heads cant take red heat, aluminum melts well before it turns red with heat.

What is an ICC and ICV?
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[Jeff's Old Volks Home]

[furrylittleotter]

I'm thinking it should be >1100 degrees farenheit or so…any infrared thermometers go that high?

I'm not surprised it's glowing red, I suspect it will glow less with use but who knows? hard to see when I'm driving.

Neil2

[bluebus86]

[MarkWard]

Too much timing advance at idle can cause the exhaust to overheat. I think the engine is trying to tell you something. I would not ignore it until I have verified everything is correct.

[Howesight]

I thought the OP was saying that the stainless exhaust glowed red hot at idle. If that was so, he must have very retarded spark timing. Glowing red at highway loads and speeds is another thing.
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'86 Syncro Westy SVX

[insyncro]

Guys,
It glows right at the bend coming from the header flange.
Yes, the wall thickness of these headers is not the same as the originals, neither is the material.
They do show the heat.

Again, proper timing should be checked just in case.

[gyoung10]

Idle Control Valve, Idle Control Computer/Module. Just to clarify the header to the collector pipe are glowing. I am afraid to drive. Checked and set timing.

[insyncro]

The GW Y pipe or collector pipe is different from the cast stock one.
The system does bottleneck at that junction.

[1vw4x4]

Glowing exhaust pipes are not uncommon if you are really hammering
an engine specially an old carb. engine. A fuel injected engine should never
do this at idle. This is typically a sign of a fuel system problem.

I'm just about ready to buy the GO westy SS head pipes...
Anyone have any thing good or bad to say about these???

[chazz79]

This is normal of 304 stainless as it heat sets. It lessens with use but don't expect it to ever fully go away. I built mine without restrictions and it glowed in the daytime for awhile. Once it crusted up and started to look scabby the problem went away.

Don't let it scare you. It's normal.


Don't bother wrapping it either as that just promotes corrosion.
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[otiswesty]

Mine are from Frank Condelli. I had them ceramic coated prior to install. Never noticed them getting red hot. They were alot more expensive than the new GoWesty pipes, so hopefully they are heavier guage.
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1988 T3 Syncro Single cab

Just a regular guy

[1vw4x4]

Check out this video about 7 minutes... exhaust glows, and start a fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwYQDstYCF8

[chazz79]

[1vw4x4]

YES...

You clearly like to read into things. My only point was to show that hard
running any vehicle can and will product temperatures in this range.
Clearly not normal, but can happen.

[chazz79]

Not reading into anything at all.

You made an apples to oranges comparison with a bs video that had nothing to do with the topic.

The video took seven minutes to get to the point of its creators are a group of ricer idiots that set their car on fire. So your comparison was that if you duplicate a situation that no sane person would, you'll set your car on fire. You run a vanagon like that and it's chucking a rod long before radiant heat even makes the cat glow.

Make a video, I'll grab the popcorn for that one and bet it takes way less time to get to the point.

I think I'll go to youtube and search for videos stating that jumping in a swimming pool results in getting folks wet.
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[Dampcamper]

Not having a set of stainless pipes in hand to compare construction with OE steel, I speculate that the stainless pipes have thinner walls than the standard steel ones (they're made out of tubing, right?). Also, stainless steels don't conduct heat as well as standard steels - their thermal conductivity is typically about half of low-carbon steel's conductivity.
So, heat energy introduced at the exhaust port, which would normally be carried away by the greater thickness of the steel and its better ability to transfer heat "horizontally" (along the length of the pipe) doesn't get transferred away as well by the stainless...same amount of heat energy, concentrated in a smaller area = higher temperature, right? Same as happens with compression of air in your diesel engine?

I'll trust the designers as to whether this is an OK thing, the glowing pipes.