I recently bought a 1989 f-250 with a 5.8. It hsn't run right since I bought it, but that is the reason I got it at a great price.

Here is the run down:
EGR sticks so I disconnected the vacuum and now it idles nice. I gutted the cat, replaced the fuel pressure regulator and o2 sensor as well as a top to bottom tune up and although its running much better its still got no power and gets the manifolds red hot.

FWIW, it has all the air tube junk running to the manifolds. It seems to have a leak in the drivers side manifold but my mechanic tells me its a freeze out plug in the front of the head.

Any ideas as to why this thing runs like crap and is putting so much heat to the exhaust

 

glowing exhaust manifolds are caused by your timing being off. Set it and the truck will run lots better.

 

Definitely sounds like your timing is off if your manifolds are glowing and you have low power.

 

i had the same problem with an old c 10 and it was the timing was waay out

 

The egr not functioning proporly will cause the exause gas to be to hot as well. You should think about fixing it

 

How would a malfunctioning EGR cause the exhaust manifolds to glow? All the EGR does is introduce exhaust into the intake during cruise conditions.

 

Hi,
While adjusting the timing, I would also look for a vaccum leak somewhere, maybe where your EGR valve was hooked up.

 

through a lot of tinkering, I found a few things. The timing was off enough to drain some power, with that adjusted it would still make the manifolds glow. I unhooked the air tubes and no more glowing exhaust. I plugged the tubes for the time being, that is until I get the headers I just ordered from summit

Thanks for all of your help!