Took my car out the other night and on the way home, I did a full throttle run in 2nd into 3rd, pulled it in the garage, lifted the hood while I let it cool down, and noticed the turbo was glowing. It was cold out and I took it easy except for that one short run. What I thought was strange was the then end that the TID hooks up to looked fine, it was only glowing near the back where it is bolted to my downpipe. I have no cats so a clogged one isn't the problem. Is my turbo screwed? There is 150,000+ miles on it. Thanks.

 

I had that happen with every stock turbo I have ever had, on 3 different cars. It never caused any problems. Now that I have a T-78 I never see any glowing.

 

Could be your running over stock boost levels (6.5PSI), could be normal (that's why you let it run for 2-5 minutes after you park), or if it has allot of miles on it it may need rebuilding.

I've heard if it glows red after normal driving / little boost it's about to go.

 

Its perfectly normal for the exhaust turbine to glow red hot after a hard run. I have a turbocharged Miata, a twin turbo Supra and a TII RZ7 and in all cases (even on the RX7 now that I have taken off the Air pump and ACV, and can see it) The turbine will glow . On the Miata I can get it to glow a bright cherry red if I lean the mixture a little too much.( not a very good idea)
I would be extremely worried if however the compressor side began to glow. The compressor housing is made of aluminium (english spelling) and will melt below the point at which it glows.

ralph

 

yeah it is perfectly normal..ever seen them dyno a car with a turbo..on a engine dyno. They are extremely red..and most of the time those are moddefied so chances are they are even darker red than yours was...so like it was said earlier..it is fine...
later

 

Not good to pop the hood and cool it quickly. The rapid cooling will cause cracks in the turbo and manifold. Cool it correctly w/ oil and coolant flow through the center section as you idle it down.