Straight pipes

[Forumboarder]

im running sraight pipes on my ranger i like the sound but for some reason when i rev it up real high it will shoot a flame out the end of the pipe. is this normal?

 

[z3ro]

its just gas fumes igniting at the tip from heat. As long as its not doing it a whole lot, i wouldnt worry

 

[RangerFabWorks]

you might be running a little rich. pull one of your spark plugs and look at the color of the electrode. if its a really dark black, or really wet, then you running rich. should be about a charcoal color with just a touch brown

 

[Forumboarder]

ok i know im runnin a lilttle rich but i have yet to check the plugs. im also on running on about 4 cylinders but i cant figure out why

 

[IRKillroy]

you probably have a stuck valve or two... and the flame is ignited from your spark plug when it gets lucky enough to ignite the unspent fuel in the exhaust... and when you say you have straight pipes you mean literally straight... no cross or h-pipe? this is bad for your back pressure and overall engine performance... though I'm a student of the tuned exhaust theory.

 

[Forumboarder]

you probably have a stuck valve or two... and the flame is ignited from your spark plug when it gets lucky enough to ignite the unspent fuel in the exhaust... and when you say you have straight pipes you mean literally straight... no cross or h-pipe? this is bad for your back pressure and overall engine performance... though I'm a student of the tuned exhaust theory.

well its got the caytolac converter and it runs off to the passenger side about a foot or two from the rear tire

 

[MikeInIdaho]

Here we go again...running straight pipes after the cat won't hurt a thing, performance or otherwise. you wont burn any valves out or melt the head or anything. Having little to no back-pressure in the exhaust system won't hurt your performance, either. Just get your air/fuel mixture straightened out and address any valvetrain issues and you should be good to go. I had an old Toyota hi-lux (carbureted) that did the same thing (shoot flames) when I really got on it. The problem was virtually eliminated after rebuilding the carb and replacing all the old and disintegrating seals that were dumping loads of fuel into the motor.

p.s: I've owned and driven various straight-piped (or nearly so) vehicles for quite a few years now. None have suffered any major mechanical failures of any kind and performance has always been good. just my .02

 

[rurouni20xx]

lol, i guess if you like the noise and your powerband shifted all the way into the almost yellow to redline portions of the engine go for it. ill stick to my tuned exhuast w/ plenty of backpressure. since you have cats you have retained a good bit of your backpressure so dont worry about it too much. open headers all the way back is when you experience problems or run catless w/ a glasspack.

 

[MikeInIdaho]

One other thing: keeping your exhaust piping in the 2 1/4"-2 1/2" range will retain the most low-end power, straight-piped or not. I agree, slapping a massive dia. exhaust system on a little 4-banger truck will absolutely kill low-end grunt.

 

[rurouni20xx]

the only time i see using anything larger on any vehicle is if large pressure boost is applied (12 or more psi) and flow restriction may cause problems from small plumbing.

 

[MikeInIdaho]

true, true. But even then there is a point where too big of a pipe will hurt performance. Of course, this depends on a number of factors, including engine displacement, fuel type, etc. A 5" stack might be perfect for a twin-turbo v-16 volvo tractor motor putting down 2,000 ft/lbs, but would be absolutely ridiculous to run on a small displacement 4 cylinder n/a gas motor.

 

[jaymegriffiths]

lol, i guess if you like the noise and your powerband shifted all the way into the almost yellow to redline portions of the engine go for it. ill stick to my tuned exhuast w/ plenty of backpressure. since you have cats you have retained a good bit of your backpressure so dont worry about it too much. open headers all the way back is when you experience problems or run catless w/ a glasspack.

Hmm, good info!!! i was wondering this exact same thing! my freind pulled his cat and put a "blue bottle" on his truck and it shot flames for about a week when revved real high, till the motor shot a rod through the block... however it was a chevy so exhaust was only one of two major reasons why it didn't survive. so tell me, if I put 2+1/4 inch duals, to dual cats, with cherry bombs i should be ok? i actually dont want flames just wann hear exaust over engine fan, so...

 

[rurouni20xx]

you should be fine w/ that, just be warned, it may sound kind of ricy on a 4 cylinder/v6. as for the chevy death, i like chevys a lil bit, easy to maintain etc, relatively simple design. the pipes and nos are what killed it, ive seen a fair share of chevys take a lickin and keep tickin. but anything, and i mean anything is better than a fkn dodge. plastic coated tranny gears and repeated tranny sensor failures along w/ plastic engine oil and tranny drain plugs do not impress me one bit. why did dodge bring back the hemi? cuz they were afraid ford wasnt going to lease them the cummins any longer...lol. one other thing i would like to add, the old dodges (80 on down) were pretty good, this new junk is what pisses me off. i know a lot of old dodge fans that are pissed that dodge puts the hemi sticker on this new engine they call a hemi.