I have a 1986 carburated 454 engine in a motorhome and the exhaust pipes get cherry red right off the manifold. Does anyone know why this is happening?

Is this when your working on it (motorhome is stationary, and engine is running), or just after driving it?

Reason I ask, is that at night, or in a poorly lit garage, all engine manifolds/headers start to glow when there is NO airflow through the engine compartment.

ALL my lawnmowers do the same at night.


But, if you recently changed the timing, you could be a bit retarded (no offense!) as this will cause excess heat through the exhaust.

Lawnboy, Thanks for the response! This happens when i'm working on it and the motorhome isn't moving. It also has blue flame coming out of the exhaust pipe.

Blue flame.....????

Are you running it on PROPANE???

Never heard of seeing a blue flame out of the tailpipe before.

But glowing headers/manifolds when stationary, even moving slowly (cruising) is common.

YES blue flame! it only has about four foot exhaust pipes and some blue flame comes out of the pipe.