this is how it started i pulled up next to a supra the guy just yawned at me later we pulled up at a light and he reved so i went on green and i beat him really bad (think it was no turbo) any ways after waxing him i drove home about 5 min after racing him i pulled in to my house and lifted the hood to see if I could find that damn pin hole leak in one of my coolant hoses and then i saw somthing glowing i couldnt tell if it was down pipe, turbos, or turbo manifold that was glowing but it was a nice orange glow nontheless the leak is on the same side as the tubos ect. (passenger side) and when it dripped down on whatever was glowing it flamed up for a split second. it scared the **** out of me my head was under the hood. lol. what ever was glowing was behinde a heat sheild and i could only see a small part of it glowing from looking down from the hood and looking under the car

i know the leak is bad and needs to be fixed but what about the glowing is that just because of me rapping the hell out of my car or what? im new to the rotary and turbo thing my last three cars were hondas so dont know much in this area im still learning!

my car has a average sized street port hks down pipe and an afc if that makes any differance

 

The exhaust manifold on your turbos was the glowing metal piece you saw. Perfectly normal after extended dips into boost.

 

Yeah, I have seen it several times after hard runs. If you do a search you will find that there are several threads about this already.

 

FIX THE COOLANT LEAK!! This has been the flash point for some RX fires!

Mine glows too, it it's of any concern...

 

Your car is going to burn down if you do not fix that coolant leak.

 

How would leaking coolant be a cause of a fire in your engine bay? Just woundering because I to have a coolant leak.

 

Coolant actually burns at a certain temperature (can't remember exactly what temp offhand). Touching any hot exhaust parts will flash it off instantly.

Yeah, shoulda mentioned that, FD3SR1, get that damn leak fixed ASAP. You had a quick demo of what will happen if you don't...

 

I feel happy now that I carry a fire extinguisher around with me everywhere.

 

ok, first off... before you drive the car again.... please please locate the source of the leak.. coolant burns and that manifold is RED HOT!! im rebuilding a car that had an engine fire caused by the same thing that is happening to you

ok secondly, about the turbo manifold, im gonna go ahead and disagree with everyone else here and say that the glowing in NOT normal... i have the same problem, and im thinking that it is a clogged cat... im going to swap my cat tomorow with a spare and see if it clears up the problem. the entire manifold + DP should not be glowing that badly... ill post a pic of what im getting -heath

 

ok heres what im getting... if i had a coolant/oil leak my car would be gone by now (i cant emphasize enough, do not drive the car untill the leak is fixed)







i cant believe this would be normal after being on boost for 30 seconds....

 

what is it about turbos that creates so much more heat? stupid question i'm sure, but is it just the rpm?

 

I'm not saying that you don't have a problem, but my FD has an N-Tech hi-flow cat with less than 2000 miles on it, and the manifold glows like the photos; the glowing was the same with the stock cat.

The turbo is containing a lot of exhaust energy in that particular area, and the rotary in and of itself by design has very high exhaust temps. Put those two together, and you've got some serious heat in that area.

 

holy **** thats Hot.. that cant be normal. wow...

 

I'm looking at those pictures with a childish awe. Not that it's a good situation - it's wild to see those parts glowing red.

Personally I would go to all lengths to fix that red-hot stuff. Scary. Even if the parts themselves were ok, that's a tremendous radiant heat cooking the other parts.

Dave

 

Because the turbo is forcing more a/f mixture into the combustion chamber, it's producing more heat at the same time. The more power produced, the more heat produced.

 

i dont know though... its very very hot... i put the wrapping on the DP only a few weeks ago... its supposed to be (and stay) BLACK... it is now burnt white, and very brittle... i cant help but think something is wrong

also if this IS normal... how do the BNR turbos keep from melting altogether... they run even more boost, which should get the turbos even hotter than this. in fact, my turbos will be ever so slightly glowing (if i look in there at night) if i have not been boosting AT ALL! also, when i pulled my turbos a few months ago there were HUGE cracks in the manifold... i mean HUGE, but i plan on running them untill they fail

 

look out for red hot down pipes. i lived in the country and had to park on some grass. wasn't good i smelt buring grass and looked under my car thought it was goin to blaze. lil grass fire started so dotn park on grass.
i want to get a pic of my turbo and down pipe all red. looks pretty sweet and that was only 30 seconds of boost crazy.
joel

 

Try this: Some night, warm your car up to proper operating temp, then go out with a watch someplace safe, and accelerate hard for at least 30 seconds. By accelerate hard, I mean pinning the throttle and getting deep into secondary boost (don't have to redline it, and you don't have to reach outrageous speeds; just drive aggressively, you know what I mean). Then pull up to someplace dark, turn off your lights, pop the hood, and take a close look at your exhaust manifold area.

 

yeah, keep in mind i took these pictures with the flash ON!! with the flash off the whole freakin thing glows intensly.... even half way down the DP can be seen glowing at night

 

Glowing is normal. Lots of times people don't notice it as all the stock crap nicely blocks view of the precat/dp area..

If the cat isn't clogged, and there isn't any restriction in the exhaust then you are safe.

 

Again, it's part of the design, especially with the stock twins. The exhaust manifold design-- because of space concerns-- isn't the greatest, and because of that, a lot of heat gets absorbed by the manifold due to comparatively poor flow characteristics (meaning compared to a single turbo). The cracks are unavoidable due to the turbo's design as well; cast iron can only take so much expansion/contraction from the ultra-high temps before it starts to crack.

The BNRs (well, the stage 3s, at least) are more efficient because of their impeller wheel design, so they're able to produce more boost without working as hard and generating as much heat. This is why if you try to push the stock twins continually over 14 psi, you are exceeding their efficiency, producing a lot of excess heat, and you melt the shafts... That's not to say that the exhaust manifold area on BNR turbos won't glow red hot after some serious boost sessions.

 

WOW, that sh*t is realy red hot, and we expect everything to work normal for 100K's of miles with all that heat.

"RotorMotor" you're missing a bolt on your DP btw !

 

good eye!! hehe, yeah im still deciding what to do with that one.... i dont want to grind the pipe down too far if its getting this hot for structural reasons, but i cant see any other way to do it.... ive just been putting it off cause im not sure what the best solution is

BTW this is off topic, but i was wondering if anyone has had any problems with wrapping a DP with 2 layers of wrap?? it says not to layer it on the DEI package (and this **** is uber expensivo) so i didnt want to waste any.... but even the wrap glows red... i want to put 2 layers on, in a feeble attempt to *somehow* attempt to contain all this crazy heat... it cant be good for my vacuum lines, let alone the wiring harness and any plastic in there. anyway, if anyone has "double wrapped" let me know..... also i was thinking about trying to insulate the actual turbo with the stick on insulation wrapping but im worried it would do bad things and trap too much heat ot cause a fire. ok im way off topic now, im done

 

I did try it, and got nothing like those pictures. One time I did get it to glow slightly in the dark, but certainly nothing close to those pics.

 

Yeah, I never got heavy glow like that either, just a light amount at the manifold DP interface, which goes away after ideling with the fans on for about 2 minutes. Even after tearing it up pretty good. I think Rotor's cat is clogged...

Rotor, a potential solution is to replace that long stud that's getting in the way with a shorter one. Part number N391-13-456, which is the short stud that mounts the turbos to the exhaust manifold, works nicely. Further, if it looks like the nut is interfering with the welds on the face of the DP, try using a heavy duty lock washer under the nut. It has a smaller footprint, and may not interfere with the welds. I've done this, no leaks