Pipe glowing red, need help

[CushionArtist]

Recently moved our engine from one car to another because of a track change. We ran the current motor for one race in the old car and everything was fine. Changed over to our new car and now the pipe starts glowing red 4 laps into the race and then begins to overheat. It is a Ford 2.5L engine.

Things we've checked:

Timing - Set at 32, although we did find we had been using the wrong mark on our crank pulley and had it set at 38 degrees. Pipe still glowing red after change.

Plugs were changed, wires are brand new and have been ohmed ( all within variance ).

Jetting - Have gone from 78 - 86 and still have same problem.

Changed ignition module on TFI distributor. Coil is brand new.

Header is the same as other car, is brand new.

Checked valve clearance.

Checked cam timing. It is set at 2 degrees retard and still lines up with marks as set by engine builder.

Carb to spacer and spacer to intake gaskets were changed.

With engine running at 3000 RPM's in shop, all four pipes on header begin to glow red within 5 minutes of starting. I'm out of ideas. Any help?

[CushionArtist]

Forgot to mention the only other change was to switch from an electric fuel pump to a stock mustang mechanical pump. We cannot use an electric pump now due to the track change.

[steveshawjr]

make sure all vacume ports on carb and intake have been blocked .

try backing off your timming some more see if it helps

octane level to low for eninge

head gasket blown
prt#
thats some of the things i can think of of the top of my head


i think its worth the 20 dollers for the head gasket pull the head and make sure your not bunning up a piston or 2

if your head gaskets gone have it cut back true as it could be warped

i run the e3 plugs and have had no problem with them prt# E360

i also run 94oct with a oct booster

i would also look at your cam specs . if your set retarded and have a cut head it would be even more retarded not leting the fule in it needs even with going to bigger jets look at going advanced or stright up

[car62]

id run it to 36 on ignition timing,and straight up or advanced on cam timing.

[84Dave]

Are all (4) pipes on the header glowing red? If so, a fuel mixture problem? Fuel pull-over within the carb(booster, squirters, transfer slot?) Or........ if you haven't done so, use a piston stop in the head plug hole on #1 & make certain the front pulley is indexed properly for TDC, so ignition timing will be proper. We recently checked the Esslinger pulley on front of an early 2.0L Pinto engine & it was in error by 5-degrees! With the engine warm, a static compression check of all (4) cylinders? -Dave-

[CushionArtist]

steve - thanks, I'll try looking at the carb and intake for possible air leaks. I'll also try putting the cam back at zero.
car62 - I agree, but my engine builder wants me at 32 degrees
84Dave - Yes, all four pipes are red. 2, 3, and 4 are glowing a little more than 1, but not by much. How can I check pull-over? I'm not familiar with this problem. Is this something that could just show up one week? The reason I ask is because we ran this engine combination with this carb last year and one race this year with no problem. It didn't appear until we moved this engine into another car. I'll check the pulley for proper indexing, but I think that may have been checked already.

Thanks for all the help thus far.

[Egoracing]

More often than not red pipes are a timing issue or a rich condition and going up on the jet size is going to make it worse.

[longhornracer]

mine did this once and one of my air mixture screws were ran all the way in..

[spddmn]

Did the car backfire during the intial start? Could be a ruptured powervalve, maybe the float is set to high. Sounds like a rich problem.

[84Dave]

Cushion....... if you're using the 350 or 500 Holley, and the carb has been around awhile, change the power-valve. Idle the engine for about 10 minutes in the shop, with the hood on. Clip the engine & immediately check the fuel level in the float-bowl. We've found the best fuel-level to be about 1/16" BELOW the bottom threads of the sight-plug. Pull-over? Rev the engine, steady-state, to 3500-4000 rpm. Look down the carb throat. If you see fuel dribbling/streaming out of the accelerator pump nozzles, you have pull-over. Oh..... before you try another thing, replace the o-ring on the needle-seat with a new one. If that o-ring is old/deformed/slightly hardened, the fuel pressure can push fuel by the o-ring & tend to flood the float bowl. -Dave-

[BVS40FL]

If it's timing and NOT fuel mixture.

If fuel mixture is OK. Remember this. As you RETARD the timing, the glowing exhaust will get worse. When the timing is RETARDED it will make the exhaust glow.
I agree with 84 Dave on double checking the pulley marks by using a piston stop.
After that is corrected set the timing to AT LEAST 36, if not 38.

[CushionArtist]

Ok

Checked the pulley. It was off ( freaking Esslinger ). Got that problem fixed, set the cam timing to heads up and got my timing set. Glowing pipes stopped.

Now when I bring the RPM's up to about 3500, the engine starts to develop a miss, cough, or whatever you call it. It is not running correctly. We're using a Holley 500cfm carb. Since it was the only thing that is not new or hasn't been changed we switched over to our old 350cfm carb. Engine sounds great with this so we're thinking it's the carb. This carb was refreshed last July and only run about 12 times since then. Could this be the problem? I keep seeing "pullover" mentioned. What is that and how do I test for it?

Thanks for the help.

[CushionArtist]

Sorry Dave. Didn't see you explained the pullover thing. I'll check that after I get the oring replaced. Where do you buy the orings?

Also, our carb has a power valve block off in it.

[84Dave]

McFadden-Dale, or most any other Industrial Supply house, will have drawers full of o-rings. Put a power-valve in the carb and reduce the main fuel jet size at least 4-6 numbers. -Dave-

[CushionArtist]

Purpose of power valve? Only reason I ask is because, well first I don't know what it does, and secondly our carb builder removed it and put the block off in there. I hope I'm not offending you, I just want to understand why.

Also, where can I buy the anti pullover part?