Club 80-90 Forums

Whilst carrying out the the coolant bleeding procedure following a rad replacement i've just noticed that on both sides of the engine the header is glowing cherry red as it exits the head (rear of engine bay) . The engine had been stood at idle for a while as i was warming the engine up and also had been revved to around 2000rpm to carry out the endless filling of coolant.
Engine is a 2.1MV with a Speedshop stainless system and K&N ,would this be normal due the fact it was stood at idle for a while?
Common sense tells me its probably the timing thats too far advanced which leads me on to my next question what should the timing be set at and whats the correct way to do it ? Being a 2.1Mv am i right to assume its fine to run it on regular 95oct gas

thanks in advance

Paul

Common sense tells me its probably the timing thats too far advanced which leads me on to my next question what should the timing be set at and whats the correct way to do it ? Being a 2.1Mv am i right to assume its fine to run it on regular 95oct gas

Some common fallacies here... Retarded timing can create higher EGTs, over-advancing can mitigate towards pinking or detonation, but highly unlikely when idling with no-load, even then, . Yes 95 Ok for an MV but octane rating won't be an issue here either

Possible reasons:

Weak mixture/retarded timing (but would have to be quite severe and you'd hear it chuffing or it would hunt)
Cam timing wrong - again unlikely
Air bubble in heads/lack of bleeding - ?
Silencer or cat blocked?

Stainless exhaust better insulator than normal steel, so retains heat more
Lack of airflow around engine -

In short, this might be expected after protracted idling, which is never a good thing for an engine..
Is engine new, just setup, likely to have wrong timing, lambda sensor suspect etc.


PS. For English readers: Headers = manifolds, a rather nice old word, A cylindrical pipe fitting, having a number of lateral outlets, for connecting one pipe with several others, Mmm, well worth hanging on to

Colour Temperatures

The colour of a piece of steel may be used as a guide to it's temperature. These are particulalrly useful when hardening or tempering steel.

• Colour °C
  
• Pale yellow 221
  
• Straw 230
  
• Golden yellow 243
  
• Brown 254
  
• Brown to purple 266
  
• Purple 277
  
• Bright blue 288
  
• Blue 293
  
• Dark blue 316
  
• Just visible red 500 to 600
  
• Dull cherry red 700 to 750
  
• Cherry red 750 to 825
  
• Bright cherry red 825 to 875
  
• Brightest red 900 to 950
  
• Orange 950 to 1000
  
• Light orange 1000 to 1050
  
• Lemon 1100 to 1200
  
• White 1200 to 1300

Note: These should only be used as a guide.

Cheers for the response dude ran it again after its final top up and all seems well might have been the lack of air flow in my garage, apologies for the 'non english' word header must be an Aircooled thing because Ive had them fitted to my Beetles for years I wont protract any further .

It's probably all these tuning and aftermarket outfits trying to be US friendly and 'trendy' .. I'm sure VW don't call it that... Aircooled or not.

I wonder what the German is: Spitzundsparkengasundirektzununandkollektundemittengrossfartensbarkenfabrik = exhaust manifold