Red Hot Exhaust Manifolds!

1985 chevy 5.0L 4bbl quadrajet 3 spd trans.
ok the thing bogs under load and pops and exhaust comes out the carb. i did plugs wires cap rotor wires and fuel filter. then drove it with the doghouse off and noticed the top of the Y pipe and both manifolds getting cherry red hot. so i figured it was a plugged cat. replaced the cat and the problem is still there. i cant check the timing because when i unplug the 4 wire connector the thing won't start. when i unplug the 4 wire con. while eng is running it dies. as of now i am stumped i have never seen manifolds get that hot before without any exhaust restriction. any suggestions??

its not spitting exhaust out the carb, that's fuel it spits. that is usually a sign of bad timing, try turning ur distributer cap in different directions to see if it runs better, also do some tweaking of the air/fuel mixture on ur carb that may help too

i cant check the timing because when i unplug the 4 wire connector the thing won't start. any suggestions??Check the timing with an INDUCTIVE PICKUP TIMING LIGHT. That way you won't have to disconnect any wires.§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§REFUSE · TO · LOSE§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Sounds like bad timing to me, If you cannot check the timing with some sort of tool, you can always do your best by ear. If the timing is advanced to far, you would be releasing the pressure from the chamber before the fuel was completely burned, in essence you would be venting a flamethrower out your exhaust pipes. I would suggest retarding the distributor in small increments and seeing if it starts running better.