I started the truck up cold and turned the compressor on. I had a flat tire and needed to fill up the tan. So I got talking to a guy and didn't pay attention to my truck. I walked back and started to fill up my tire and noticed that my headers were RED HOT and glowing. I quickly turn the truck off. It had not overheated but it ran on for about 30 seconds before it shut off. I gave it a minute and restarted. It started up fine but I feel like it ran a little rough on the short trip home. I hope I didn't toast something in the motor! I didn't hear any bad noise but I seemed to be lacking some power. It almost felt like it was missing. I think I'll let it cool right down and try it again.
I feel like it ran hot because I forgot to kick the choke off while I was chatting

 

Interesting.

Here is my take on it. The headers got hot more than likely to the carb being "lean" at the bottom of the cruise circuit(in the carb) and what happens when its lean, it creats alot of heat. You ask john this as he will verify it. Your motor ran on due to being a higher idle and the fact the combustion cambers were so hot, the incoming fuel(gotta remember as long as there is vacuum being created in the motor, fuel will be pulled into the motor thru the carb) was being ignited by the heat(same thing that happens in a deisel motor). Check your plug wires since the headers got sooo hot for being burned..

 

could it be the timing

 

Last night I looked at all the plug wires and they were good, so I was thinking bad things. Today I pulled the plugs. The first 6 looked perfect (OK, Markus that that they looked a little hot.) When I pulled the 7th off, the wire was pefect but the boot had melted. I pulled that plug and it was obvious that it hadn't fired. So I pulled the last couple to check them out - all looked good. I can't believe that one bad cylinder would make as much difference as it did.
To be safe, I compression checked each cylinder and they were all beween 165 and 170 so, it looks good. Of course I have to order a set of 8 boots since none of the boots that I had laying around were the shorty 90 degree boots. I'll have them Thursday.

Hey Mike, did you get that lens ordered?

 

You would need alot of heat for a lot longer to do damage, and usually the damage is in the exhaust valves since thats where the heat is generally centered...

Dale, the plug wire set I am going to have markus order will have a couple spare boots..

Yup, the lense is ordered and let me know if it doesn't reach you by the end of the week(It should go to you) plus I am almost getting caught up and getting the fianal bill figure out....


Ya, its funy how one cylinder can make such a change, heck, you should see what happens when a 3 cylinder metro looses one cylinder, WOW

Ya, you will have to work harder to hurt that motor

 

No hurry. We found out last week that my daughter Dana has a hole in her heart and will require open heart surgery. I'm self employed with sucky insurance. Glad I spent my money when I had it.

We've prayed for Dana's miraculous healing and believe that she will be healed. But should God's plans prove otherwise, we pray for skilled surgeons and a complete recovery.

Then, we get to deal with the bills :cry:

 

I am competing in the Webfooter Rock Crawl event next weekend, I don't think we'd have that here soon enough. I have to defend my title since I won the unlimited class last year.

 

I am sorry to hear that, but I hope/pray all things go well w/ the surgery.

 

Hmm, I got the new boot and the engine runs like crap still. Time to do some more research...

 

Well, I have checked that I have spark to all 8 plugs. All spark looks good.

Now, I do have completely separate dual exhaust and I'm getting a barking noise coming out occassionally. The original plug wire that got fried was on the left side (passenger side) and that's the exhaust manifold that got red hot.

When I pull a wire on the left side I get a minimal change in the way the engine runs, but when I pull the plug on the right side, there is a noticeable drop in performance. The engine "feels" unbalanced.

Anyone think it might be the catalytic convertor on the left side, perhaps it got damaged?

 

Didn't you do a complete cylinder compression check?

 

Yep, 165 - 170 in each cylinder.

 

Thats odd. Only thing that I can think of, is whats called a tulliped valve..

 

Mike, what about runninng extremely lean? Just a thought!

 

It could be a lean miss, but you generally don't get that with just one cylinder...

 

Sorry to hear about your daughter...hope everything goes well and she recovers completely.
Crash: What's a tulliped valve?

 

A tuliped valve. Its kinda hard to explain in words(just because my little brain can't think of those big/cool words ). Basically the face of the valve (the portion you see when its in the head) is supposed to be flat. when it tulips, the face becomes concave and causing the ground portion of the valve not to mesh with the seat in the head, and also causing the valve stem heigth to be taller. We typically usually see this problem on a motor that has been running lean and over revved. But I have seen it from just plain being too lean (you have to remember since the exhaust gasses escape out the exhaust port, thats where the heat is centered).

 

ok I see now a tuliped, like too-lipped valve...makes sense. I thought you meant tulliped, like tool-i-ped valve. Must get pretty hot in order to warp a valve

 

This is similiar to a burnt valve, right?

 

No, a burnt valve actually burns the metal away...