Okay, I just got my brother's turbo 'teg back up and running with a fresh new oil line and a Hondata Stage III boost. Everything is working out fine except for some fueling issues on the low speed cam, but that will be addressed when it's tuned.

My question, I was out driving rather spiritedly last night and discovered that the turbo was glowing red. Is this normal when you are beating the crap out of a turbo or am I running too rich or too lean?

My A/F meter tells me that I'm running around stoich and rich during boost (up to 8.5lbs). On the low speed cam, with no boost, it bounces between lean and stoich. However, normal cruising, it's normal.

Any insight?

Thanks,
Alex


[Modified by civicgsr, 9:13 AM 11/20/2001]

 

yes thats normal it should glow a little after a good hard driving.

 

Whew! Being my brother's car, I hardly ever drive it. I usually don't work on it late at night so when I came back home to check for oil leaks and such I noticed the turbo.

Thanks!

 

Hmm, interesting. Are you talking about the blades inside? (For those of you without a filter). Or are you talking about the turbo housing?

Mine never gets that hot....

 

No the housing was red. I've seen pictures of it before.

I don't know if it ever did it before hondata, but with Greddy's FCU and the OBDI issue, we were never really able to get on it before. After over a year of ****, dealing with Greddy over that occursed blue box, we ditched it in favor of some fire hose injectors and the hondata. Now I can run it to redline in any gear and I pretty much did it (not 5h though, I wasnt going to push my luck).

-Alex

 

I bet the guys in the appearance forum are jealous, but they wish that the turbo glowed blue or neon green.


[Modified by rtype11, 8:28 AM 11/20/2001]

 

Oh man, that's funny!

Maybe you could get it to glow different colors by adding a thermal coating with addatives which glow when hot

Oh man....somebody slap me quick!

 

open hand, back hand bitch slap or what?

 

Whatever it takes!

 

I want to see pics of this... Ive never seen it before.. Go out and beat on his car for awhile and take some pics for me

 

LMAO!

 

It's a pretty cool site, have you ever seen a race on TV at night? Their brake rotors burn red hot it's bad ***, I'd imagine the turbo looks the same. I bet a lot of the rice lovers would prefer it to glow neon blue like their LED Washers.. haha

 

Beat on the car for the sake of everyone else? I'll get right on it. I don't know how I would do it. You can't really see it with lights on.

-Alex





[Modified by civicgsr, 1:34 PM 11/21/2001]

 

I know what you mean. I had opened the hood to check for oil leaks and it was like, whoa (ya know, like Keano reeves?)

My buddy and I were drag racing side by side on an abandoned road one night. We would run it through 3rd gear stop and do it over again. I looked over and saw his rotors. I was like "DUDE! Your rotors are glowing"

 

Your gonna **** something up soon if you keep driving it like that...your tune aint right...either your dumping excessive fuel in there or your timing is too retarded...it could be leaning out or timing too far advanced but i dont think so cause you said A/F was on rich side under boost and you didnt hear pinging..right?
first thing too do is check the timing and ignition maps and see where your at and 2nd..if you have spare cash,get a EGT gauge installed in manifold,,like 1-2" out from head.


[Modified by D-Man, 11:47 PM 11/20/2001]

 

Just curious, what is your exhaust setup? Is it at least 2.5-3"" from downpipe back, including cat?

I wouldn't drive it THAT hard just for the sake of seeing a red turbo housing though.

Do you have an EGT? Autometer's A/F meter is pretty much just a light show. I wouldn't rely on that alone. Your EGT's might shoot up while you're O2 are still showing rich. At least with the probe you can compare both readings. Just my 0.02.

 

It's all about the light show!

 

I agree. The problem that I have, is a complete lack of a good dyno shop. Then, I'll take that a step further and say that there is a complete lack of Hondata certified dyno shops. The tuning is from a GSR with a drag turbo kit. I don't know what that specific car had, but I needed something to make the car work (greddy blue box issue).

In the near future, I'll be taking a road trip to the nearest dealer to have it tuned properly. This place is about 6-8 hours away, but tune is too far off (on the low speed cam) to hold out for to long.

All this for my brother's car. I'm a nice guy aren't I?

Just wanted to add, no pinging. Like I said, it feels really good onthe second cam. 2nd gear destroys the tires after 6k. I know that under heavier throttle at low speeds with no boost, it's too lean, but when you are driving normally, it reads normal.


[Modified by civicgsr, 6:18 PM 11/20/2001]

 

Exhaust setup is not idea. Stock Cat, and a Greddy PE exhaust.

I'm hoping to convince my brother to go with a 3" cat and 3" exhaust soon. That will help a little, but I think tuning is going to be the key.

 

does it turn red just if you drive around normal..no boostin..like if you were drivin on highway at steady speed,and you stopped and popped hood,,itll be glowing???

 

The "glowing" seems to be much less than it was yesterday. I checked when I got home from work. Under normal driving, it's hard to tell when it's pitch black outside.

I just got off the phone with Hondata regarding this issue. I was told that if the engine tune is decent (not necessarily good), then the only other cause would be restriciton in the exhaust which is what Prelude _RCR brought up.

Otherwise, the glowing can happen after driving for 10 mintues down the highway (back pressure issue). Like I mentioned, even if there is one light near the car, you can't see it.

 

yeah,,if your cat is going bad,,it could do that too..ive seen that happen

 

Yep, it has about 94K on it. It's time to upgrade

Thanks guys!

 

In my Saab Turbo the turbo was glowing slightly after driving on the freeway 20 mintues then 10 minutes on regular streets(not driving hard). It should be normal, turbos get very hot and spin @ 125,000 rpm.