I was driving behind my good buddy's Procharged Vette and noticed that after he got on it and downshifted to take a turn,he got a huge flame belch. This seemed to only happen under engine braking but the more we drove,the bigger and longer the flames got. I have to admit it looks cool at first but I could easily see it causing him some problems. When I told him about it he swears he never knew it did this. I had him drive my car while I drove his and he was shocked that the flames were so huge. I'm not embellishing one bit when I say the flames extended 10-12 feet behind the car under hard engine braking when the revs were brought up to about 4500 rpm without any throttle application. They get to about 3-4 feet in diameter as well and kinda linger until application of the throttle puts them out.

His car is a 2002 Z06,stock displacement with a TR "blower cam",LG longtube headers and a Borla Stinger exhaust. I have no idea who tuned the car but it drives and runs terrific. I don't smell any distinct evidence of a rich running condition and the general docile attitude of the car would lead me to conclude that whoever tuned it did a very good job. I need to again stress that while this looks cool at first,it gets kinda scary looking after a while and I could see other drivers nearly slamming on the brakes when they were near his car when it did the dragon thing. He's worried that the cops might seriously frown on a loud car belching flames and I'm just wondering if this is more a product of a faulty tune or even the fact that he uses octane booster. I'd also like to know if this is more common with blown cars as I was strongly considering going that route with my car. If this is a product of blower cars then I might just stick with H/C set-up.


Thanks in advance for any help.

 

I've heard of some of the WRX's with larger turbo's and no cats doing this when they rev the car, but don't know on this. I'm curious to know the answer on this too.

 

We need a vid of this tailgater deterent! Sounds kewl like once but not all the time.

 

I refuse to answer till we get a video.....
Not that i have a answer but you wont get my lack of a answe till then..



John

 

Lol......^^^

 

Of all the cars in have installed ATI ProChargers on, and tuned on my Mustang Chassis Dyno, I have never ever seen this problem. The very first thing I recommend doing is seeing where the air/fuel ratio is at wide open throttle, and also at part throttle. Bob

 

I know you're being serious, but there is no way I'm going to believe that unless I see it.

 

Sounds like one or more injectors are sticking causing raw fuel to be dumped and ignited in the exhaust system. Maybe caused by the octane booster? Don't know, but something to consider. Definitely get some video on this. If nothing else, it would have some serious entertainment value.

 

I've seen a WRX do it before.... but nowhere near that huge. It was maybe 8-10 inches long and maybe only 4 inches wide (about the same diameter as his tip). It was a modded STi, but I don't have any clue as to what mods he had.

 

Video!!!!!!!!

 

He's gonna get it back to his tuner right away. As far as a video goes,I'm not your guy. I'm barely literate enough to log on and type this message. If he has'nt taken the car in by next weekend,I'll get my 11 year old son(who has his own website,terrabyte hosting server and 3ccd DV cam) to take the video and post it.

I was also wondering why these flames come from both tailpipes. Is there a cross-over in the LG or Borla exhaust systems? I'm also wondering why this did'nt happen more often when the car was colder,which should be when it's running richest. It happened more as we drove and by the time we finished up our 45 minute drive it would do it nearly everytime he backed out of the throttle under engine braking. I need to note that this ONLY happens under engine braking and does'nt happen when he just backs off the throttle.

Video by next week if possible. Thanks for the clue guys.

 

I remember my heads cam car shot about 6" flames, if yours are over a foot id be really really really worried.

I didnt even like my 6" think of it as money comming out the tail pipes right now with the gas prices where they are.

 

the ricers must worship him then with flames like that. the car must have too much fuel for some reason, something has to burn to make a flame. he might want to try some injector cleaner also, dunno what exactly to recommend.

 

I agree with the injector sticking open, for that kind of a flame thats the only thing that sounds reasonable.

 

I agree but I hope it's true because it sounds pretty bad a$$ and I want to see it!!

 

I have seen a one foor long flame come from soem of the 4.3l's I have done on the highway on hard engine breaking (letting off in third at 120 or so). The poppetsd on the vortec trucks will stick when you have them at 90+psi of fule pressure lol.

 

It's loading up on decel.Just needs to be adjusted in the tune by leaning out the A/F and ajust the decel timing.Corvette's are known to drop serious timing on decel

 

No seriously! No need to hid the fact that he's obviously done the turbine jet mod! Now he'll smoke even an F-16!

 

Slowhawk is right IMO. I also think it can be tuned better to elliminate this fire breathing tail pipe syndrome LOL!

 

man i hope your son's able to take a vid of it, cuss i wanna see this!