Any help on this I would appreciate. I have a 86 convertible. It smelled rich from the pipes with some white smoke. Figured maybe the cats were clogged. Completely disconnected the exhaust from the headers. I still smell a rich mixture, and when I rev it up i have about a one foot flame coming out of the passenger side header pipe, drivers side maybe 6 inches of flame. Did something overheat before I bought it? and screw something up, I did notice nothing but sludge in the overflow tank. PLs. help...Thanks alot in advance.

 

Umm a flaming vette. LOL wow. Yea clean out your readiator real good. Apparenlty the previous owner did not take care. You may need a new cooling system. I dont no for usre on that but yea....def change out the coolant.....If it smells rich then your car is duh sending to much fuel but first you need to check on that flame lol. Not good. So any other symptoms on why flame is coming out of ur car.Id hate to have to come to your funeral cuz you blew up....

 

I took it for about a 10 mile trip when I first bought it, and the temp went up to about 280 degrees, wich i here isnt that uncommon anyway. lol, I know that its gettin too much fuel, just dont know why or how to fix that problem. when I had the exhaust on it was cherry red. ( when it was in the garage, I tell ya why in a bit ) I havent driven it in 5yrs since that day.
But I did notice, I dont know what it is o2 sensor maybe? on the passenger manifold is gone, just a hole. Well back to the short drive, when I noticed the temp going up I headed home, then looked in the mirror and all I saw was a big ball of flame following me. looking back the only thing I though coulda happened was flame was actually coming out of that hole in the manifold and caught a bunch of grease on fire. But I did get it out before anything blew up..lol

 

White smoke in the exhaust? Overheating? I think you have a major leak. Pop off the radiator cap and is there anything in the anti-freeze? I would do a compression check. You may also have a blow intake gasket. Check the oil for signs of coolant in it. If all checks out good i would flush the coolant real good and see if that solves your overheating problem. Glowing exhaust is usually a sign of clogged up cats, but maybe you are having a lot of unburnt fuel enter the exhaust. What do the plugs look like?

 

O2 sensor is in the driver side exhaust pipe. Need to check codes as you may have a few different problems. If car is running hot, the ECM fattens up the fuel mixture some to help cool the engine down. Your radiator might be stopped up, t-stat stuck. I would like to see some O2 readings at idle and at 2000 rpms.[8D]

 

Thanks alot guys, I'll have to do all of that this spring, just put it in mothballs and under the cover for the winter