it is getting colder out now where i live and the exhaust is getting steamy
i have true duals on my truck but only one side steams
sometimes both sides steam but why is it that just the one sode steams sometimes

 

Does it create steam, then stop doing it when the truck is totally warmed up, or is it always steaming (like after a 1 hour trip)?

Does your coolant/anti-freeze overflow's level drop over time?

 

no it is normal
it goes away once the truck is warmed up
im just wondering why only one side of the exhaust does it

 

Steam, from what I understand, appears due to the condensation of water in the exhaust system upon the cool-down process. If, for whatever reason, one side of your exhaust was routed differently, the cool-down rate between the two sides could differ. Condensation may have more of a chance to accumulate in a faster, or slower, cooling exhaust (though I can't say which it would be).

That being said, I seem to have remembered that H2O is a byproduct of internal combustion engines... read this excerpt from a web page:
"A hydrocarbon fuelled internal combustion engine such as a petrol or diesel engine is inherently “dirty” by virtue of its operation. All hydrocarbon fuels produce carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and water vapor (H2O) as byproducts of combustion. The more complete the combustion process, the more C02 and the less CO. CO is poisonous to humans at certain concentrations and considered a major contributor to environmental pollution."
http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:76-TFXkUTHQC:www.steamcar.co.uk/Challenge/Home_Page.htm+byproducts+internal-combustion-engines&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

In taking that one step further, perhaps a cylinder, or bank of cylinders (which would then depend on the head and the intake manifold's design problems), is burning better/worse than the other?

If your system isn't leaking coolant at any rate into the cylinders (which it probably isn't - but that's hard to rule-out sometimes), then I, too, would like to know the physics behind this phenomenon that I have seen on other true-dual exhaust systems.

I know that helped very little... sorry.

Best,

 

I think it also has to do with the length of pipe. Since the entire system is cold in the morning, if 1 pipe is longer than the other, it has a longer cold pipe to go through, therefore the temp drops more and thus creates more condensation I think.


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Justin - One Happy FTE Member

 

its not really a big deal i was just wondering why
its been buggin me to see the steam (as i describe it) to be comming out of one tail pipe and not the other
my exhaust is all the same length on both side give or take 2 inches
i did notice a leak at the joint of the muffler maybe that is why
its new so im gonna take it back and have it fixed up


just seemd strange it only comes out the one side

 

when the engine is cold, the exhaust gets routed through the intake to help warm the motor. then when the engine warms, the valve which diverts it through the intake closes, and it goes through the exhaust pipe. im not sure what the valve is called, possibly th EGR valve (exhaust gas recirculation).

eden