Expert: Roger J.M. Warrington - 10/28/2005

Question
Roger,
I have recently put a 1987 Chevy 350 into my 86 Mazda RX7.  It has a 650 Holley Carb, and a BW T5 tranny.  To get it to fit I had to use shorty headers and I had a local muffler shop put on the rest of the exhuast.  Two straight pipes going into two seperate mufflers.  While installing I had to replace the two head gaskets and the intake manifold gasket because of coolant in the oil.  Now, after the exhaust was all done I took her out for a spin and when I pulled it back in, only one of the exhaust "pipes" was hot, glowing cherry hot.  I probably drove it for about 10 minutes.  It's piston number 5 on the driver side, but it's only number 5 that is gettting that hot.  What would be causing this?  Any help would be greatly appreciated!!  Thanks Roger!!

Eric

Answer
Hea Eric;
      You have a 350 in a mazda thats great, it must have taken a lot of work, Ok did you take a comp. test to see the cyld. psi. also if the valves are not set right it could cause it , or if the header bolts are not tight, but most headers do get red hot , as cherry red is not uncommon and if it is running good and there is no overheating or low oil psi, it might just be that the headers you have run that one pipe a bit hotter than the rest.so I would pull the plug on that cyld. and do a comp. test on it and see what it is also if the plug is clean if its all fine than it is just that that one cyld. runs a bit hotter on that tube. than I would not worry about it as long as everything checks out ok.and good luck and if the engine is new I would break it in slow for at least 500 - 1000 miles and change the oil and filter also.
Roger