Flaming Exhaust?

[Fly Rice Racer]

I have seen some tricked out cars that when they rev up flames shoot out of the tailpipe.

What causes that? A lot of Le Mans cars I see do it. Can Imports do it too?


:bandit: :smoka: :smoker2:

[jimmyfunk]

it's done by simply mounting a spark plug in your exhaust....(or used to be done this way).....back in the day muscle cars let out alot of un-burned fuel through their exhaust sytems...giving the spark plug enough fuel to make a flame. Unfortunately, imports...or almost any car these days have alot less un-burned fuel emitting out of their muffler....so I don't believe it is going to be possible for you to do it on your car this way. I've also heard of people mounting a propane-emitter somewhere along their exhaust system to create a flame. A lot of bigger trucks that are in tractor pulls and such do this sort of thing.....but again.....i'm not quite sure that is going to work on your car.

[Self]

Get a turbo...Tune your A/F ratios dangerously on the "gassy" side...Rev up and every time you let off of the gas, flames will jump from your exhaust, in tandem with the BOV...Dangerous, stupid, COOOOOL

[Fly Rice Racer]

So I'm guessing this could be potentially bad for the car as well a waste of fuel?

Thanks for the info!

[Self]

Originally posted by Fly Rice Racer
So I'm guessing this could be potentially bad for the car as well a waste of fuel?

Thanks for the info!

Yes, it can be very bad for the car. With that much fuel going into the engine, you up the chances of pre-ignition. That's when your fuel lights up in the cylinders with the valves still open...Or even worse, when fuel lights up in the intake manifold. It may look COOL, but it's not a cool thing to do. If you want to do that, search on yahoo.com for something called a dragonfire kit. It basically shoots the flames when you press a button. It's what they use in movies like the Fast and the Furious to make fire come from the exhaust. I think it's like $400 or something like that. Oh, but it's definately illegal...

[93speed]

Its cool, but I don't see the point in buying it. Its illegal on the street. I'm almost certain they won't let you use it at shows for safety concerns, they won't let you use it at the track. So where are you gonna use it? I just don't see the point of spending the money on something so worthless.

[Fly Rice Racer]

I was just asking how they did it. I didn't say that I was gonna do it.

They is a guy here who has a car done up like the batmobile.

He has this huge hole(2ft wide) coming out of the back of his car that he can light up and this huge flame comes shooting out. It's really cool. I just wanted to know how Le Mans cars and stuff like that did it.

Thanks for all the info BTW

[Self]

Originally posted by Fly Rice Racer
I was just asking how they did it. I didn't say that I was gonna do it.

They is a guy here who has a car done up like the batmobile.

He has this huge hole(2ft wide) coming out of the back of his car that he can light up and this huge flame comes shooting out. It's really cool. I just wanted to know how Le Mans cars and stuff like that did it.

Thanks for all the info BTW

The Le Mans cars are doing it just from having huge turbo's the exhaust a lot of unburnt fuel into the pipes. No toys on those things.

[civ69]

The spark plug needs to be hooked to a coil, it wont do shit by itself. Drill a hole in the exhaust tailpipe mount the spark plug hook it up to the coil, and flick the switch and, baam, flames

:bandit:

[Cyprus106]

I had a friend do that, hooked the spark plug (he got a kit) up on his tailpipe and when he revved it shot out flames. But it caught his bumper on fire 4 times before he finally caught on that he was retarded. Cost him 2 new bumpers and he was out nearly $600.

I'd just as soon leave that one to whoever else wants it.

Cyprus

[so-cali]

Its cool, but I don't see the point in buying it. Its illegal on the street. I'm almost certain they won't let you use it at shows for safety concerns, they won't let you use it at the track. So where are you gonna use it? I just don't see the point of spending the money on something so worthless.

O please. Street racing isnt legal either, yet people spend copious amounts of their money on their car to make it faster. A flame kit isnt some huge unit that sticks to the back of the car that any cop is gonna be able to spot and pull you over for. Tons of shit that people do to cars is illegal. When you get down to the import scene on the streets, its only illegal if you get caught. And you only get caught when you do something stupid or reckless in front of po-po's. Just be cautious as to who is watching you and you'll have a bunch of people telling you how sick your ride is with the addition of the flame kit.

[wagsaccordsir]

check out www.autoloc.com they have those flaming exhaust kits...

[rx racer]

U really dont need any kind of spark plugs. What you basically need to do is get rid of your catalitic converter. The purpose of the catalytic converter is to burn up all unburned fuel that comes out of the engine. Thus if you have fuel burning in the exhaust. If you have lots of excess fuel such as at shift poits or hi rpm where cars tend to be tuned a little richer to prevent knock the excess fuel coming off the engine will continue out the tailpipe thus you get flames.

I know I get it cuz im runnin a full 3" exhaust its kinda cool especially when blowin someone away and all they see is a ball of fire and you pullin away.

[ivymike1031]

From http://www.bba-reman.com/cats.htm

There are three basic types of automotive catalytic converters; Two-Way, Three-Way and Three-Way + Air. Each type uses a slightly different method and chemistry to reduce the harmful elements in exhaust emissions. Early model converters used a pelletised catalyst, but most modern converters are now designed with a free-flowing honeycomb ceramic catalyst. The type of converter required on a particular vehicle varies with model year, engine size and vehicle weight. Some vehicles even make use of more than one type of converter or a pre-converter to meet emission reduction standards.

A Two-Way converter, used on American cars between 1975 - 1980, oxidizes unburned harmful hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide into water and carbon dioxide. The first vehicles with catalytic converters had Two-Way reduction only capabilities.

A Three-Way converter is a triple purpose converter. It reduces nitrous oxides into nitrogen and oxygen. And, like the two-way converter, it oxidizes unburned harmful hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide into water and carbon dioxide.

A Three-Way + Air converter performs the same functions as the Three-Way converter. It oxidizes and reduces. The difference is the addition of secondary air between the two internal catalyst substrates that improves the oxidation capabilities of the converter. The secondary air is pumped into the middle of the converter between two separate catalyst coated ceramic substrates. The front ceramic performs the reduction and the back ceramic performs the oxidisation. Its like having two converters in one.

It should be noted that a catalytic converter can only "burn off" as much fuel as it has oxygen for. If your car has an air pump on it (like late 70s and early 80s cars), then there will be plenty of air. Otherwise, the excess fuel will cling to the catalyst and wait for O2 to come through, like when the engine switches to a lean operation mode. If the catalyst "burns off" too much fuel, it will melt & stop working.

Without a catalyst, on an otherwise normal car, the amount of fuel coming out of the tailpipe during the brief periods of rich operation will not likely be enough to produce a visible flame, if it burns at all (it's cooled off quite a bit by the time it exits the tailpipe). The two main ways that I've seen people blow flames from the tailpipe on "mostly stock" cars are:

1) on cars w/o a catalyst, install an ignition cut switch, and a spark plug in the tailpipe (with coil, etc., to make it spark). Rev the car up and cut the ignition for a couple seconds, and the engine will pump raw mixture out the tailpipe. If the tailpipe plug is active, this mixture will burn and make a big flame. The risk is that you might blow up your tailpipe in the process, and possibly injure yourself (the whole length of the tailpipe may fill up with combustible mixture).

2) on cars with a catalyst, install a fuel injector and a spark plug at the very end of the exhaust pipe. This method doesn't have nearly as much risk of explosion. There won't be enough oxygen available for the fuel to burn until it exits the tailpipe and mixes with the air, so it may be hard to get it to light up. You can put a "combustor can" near the end of the tailpipe to help out (a tube surrounding the tailpipe, open at both ends, and extending beyond the end of the tailpipe, to mix the fuel & air and keep it within reach of the spark plug).

I don't recommend doing any of this, of course...