After taking my turbo off to replace a gasket, i noticed that it glows when it is dark enough to see. I've heard that this is normal, but I have speculations. As a side note, I have no air leaks around the turbo, I made sure of that, but I suspect that I could possibly be running rich, but I'm not sure, I don't see an excess of fuel on the plugs. Also, my car feels tighter than ever and pushes 9psi on the turbo no problem, but I am still worried. Please share your opinion and advice. Thanks a lot, I appreciate it,
kev

 

My friends 1989 Supra's Turbo glows in the dark too. Quite a sight to see..

 

Any car, whether NA or turbo, will heat the manifold/turbo/headers/pipes to glowing point after about 15-30sec of sustained load. It's not hard!
I've watched a Nissan SR20 (NA) on an engine dyno, we had the cast irom manifold and the first two feet of pipe a lovely cherry red after ~20sec of WOT at only 4000rpm!
I also watched a 12A BP powered Datsun 1200 ute at a legal late night burnnout comp a few months ago. After a 90sec burnout (with the cabin illuminated constantly by the shift light!) the exhaust glowed orange from the headers to the tip...
Here's an great example of a Nissan RB26DETT on a dyno:

 

I gess it is normal

check out my cool pic.

 

Be careful though, folks. For those whose turbo and exhaust manifolds glow after harder runs = if you still have your cats, you could have problems. Real spirited drives will heat them up and turn them red (my wife did this in our old 88 t-bird turbo coupe - ran it so hard the manifold glowed). But, if you find that just a run or 2 to redline turns it red hot and you still have cats, they are clogged..... Seen this on NUMEROUS MK3 Supra turbos.

 

I have a whole new exhaust system which replaced the factory double cats with one, so I know I don't have clogged cats. Does anyone know how to test whether or not my car is running rich?

 

?