Red hot exhaust
 

This weekend a buddy of mine was pacing me and noticed that my exhaust was glowing orange, is this normal? I have a single straight pipe.

Single straight pipe? No cats? No muffler?

The literature that came with my Flowmaster said that the heat is lessened from under the hood, and therefor greater at the muffler. Using this theory, considering you are straight piped, the heat is even more greatly moved back to the tailpipe. But for it to be glowing orange can only mean 1 of 3 things.

1. The heat from the engine has COMPLETELY moved to the end of the exhaust.

2. The metal of your exhaust is PRETTY DAMN THIN.

3. Your buddy that was pacing you had consumed ECSTACY, MUSHROOMS, LSD, or a combination of those.

hope this helps, just my stab in the dark.

Answer 3...final answer.

I agree, that's impossible.

I know guys who shoot flames out their tailpipes and still can't turn that stainless steel red. Do you realize what kind of temps it would require to do that? Your internal combustion chamber doesn't even give off enough heat to turn your pipes glowing red hot. Heck, if they got any hotter would they start dripping "hot liquid magma" all over the street????

Come on, that's a little far fetched and silly at the least :)

Tom

When I had my magnaflow single in/dual out ran to the bumper with 3.5 tips, One day I stepped behind the truck and was unhitching a trailer and felt like I was standing next to a furnace, But they weren't glowing red hot???....And also at that time I was running NGK's hotter plug, so I assume that the combustion tempature, as well as the overall exiting exhaust were a step warmer.

oh yeah, my Kawi Z1000 stainless pipes get so hot that your leg doesn't even have to touch them to singe every layer of skin off your leg, but they don't glow red.

give me some time I will get pics

hope he has a good photoshop program.. if you need help let me know i can make your pipes glow red in the photo :)

are you sure it isnt your bestfriends cool glowy sticks from the last rave he got rollin on at?

I've seen an exhaust glow before, this is what happened

The exhaust was constructed from 22 gauge steel
There was a 50 psi turbo, which had run for 13 hours
110 volts of electricity were being run through it
It was painted with UV reactive red paint
And the guy was driving pretty hard, not very hard, just pretty hard.

I believe him

As hot as these on this bike???
 

These pipes got HOT!!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...nalFlames1.jpg

Damn, talk about glowing...

Is that a V-twin?

OK hold on do you think that I am talking about the tip or the manifold. I'm talking about the manifold and the cats not the tip theres on way that you could get the whole exhaust to glow but I will still try to get the pics. I have a 3" body lift so you can see the manifold and cats no problem.

yeah we all thought that by 'exhaust', as your original post says, that you meant your exhaust, like muffler or tips. you also mentioned you have a straight pipe, which would ultimately mean more heat rearward.

If you meant 'manifold', then 'exhaust manifold' or 'headers' would have tipped us off. Also, 'cats' would be a good way to describe the 'cats', or catalytic converter.

What exactly on your exhaust is straight piped? You say you have cats, so your have no muffler?

So much for posting new threads before I go to bed. I have cats all 4 of them(dumb OBD2) but no muffler and have the exhaust exit in front of the right rear tire.

Busa01,
It is possible for exhaust to become hot enough to turn red. Small engines (B&S, Tecumseh, Kohler, Onan, etc..) will turn the exhuast red hot when the ignition timing is off due to a sheared flywheel key.
BUT, I think it would take MUCH hotter temps to turn a cast manifold red hot! so you are right in that aspect.

I don't know if the ignition timing being off could cause this in your engine...but you might try putting a light on it and checking it...doesn't really take too long. If this was your problem, I would think that you would definitely notice it running poorly...I'm no expert, just thought I would mention it.