What causes flames to come from the exhaust of cars? I had a supra pass me tonight on the freeway and when he shifted to 5th a ball of fire shot out of muffler, I see it all the time in NASCAR too but I thought it was just cause they were running 110 octane fuel and they were so hot... Was the supra on 110 octane?

 

mmm im no expert but i believe maybee because it doesnt burn all the fuel in the engine soo maybee unused fuel gets ignited in the exhaust. i remember reading simmilar things when WRC cars use the bang bang thing to keep the turbo spooling. PLease correct if im wrong. ohh i think i remember a friend told me once turbo cars tend to run slightly rich not sure if thats really true or not never had a turbo before.. but me myself would really like to hear an answer to this..

 

It could be a simple flame thrower kit (w/the press of a button you have flames)

I would also like to here an answer to this,

 

When a car run's riche, and has a good flowing exhaust flames will shoot out in between shifts... Similar to a backfire So no it was probably not running 110octane, but it was surely running very riche...

 

i saw a truck at the races with a spark plug in one of his pipes, put some gas through it, and you've got flames..but of course you have to hook it all up properly and what not

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wlee2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">mmm im no expert but i believe maybee because it doesnt burn all the fuel in the engine soo maybee unused fuel gets ignited in the exhaust. i remember reading simmilar things when WRC cars use the bang bang thing to keep the turbo spooling. </TD></TR></TABLE>

most likely the supra is running rich under boost and has a straight through exhuast, no cat. My integra made small pops during shifts for a while when I was running a FMU, just small enough to see the exhuast tip light up and know that is was a flame. But I know what you're talking about, my friend's Skyline and WRXs do the the whole FIREBALL thing. The cars that do this are usually pretty modded and running pretty rich up top.

The "bang gang thing", you're talking about I think is called a "Anti Lag System". I think it tunes the ECU to fire injectors to dump unburned fuel to ignite in the exhaust manifold before the turbo to keep it spooling and prevent lag. That is most likely NOT what you saw. That type of kit will also cause VERY premature wear on a turbo and turbo manifold, destroying them pretty fast from what I understand.

 

ohh sorry for the confusion .. heh i wasent stating that what he saw was a ALS system but that was where i read the unburnt fuel thing from it was off a site saying how ALS works soo i just put 2 and 2 together and got fireballs out the tailpipe =P .. heh my fault entirely ^_^. and no i dont recomend using ALS.. bad for your turbo