i was working on timing my 300 and the exhaust manifold turned red hot after about 5 min. of running. anyone know what would make it do this?

 

plugged cats?

 

Extreme rich condition. could also. or the timing being out to much one way. can't remmeber which way, though I think to retarded. not allowing fuel to buncompletely and then slow burn in Ex manifold. That is all I can think of othe than what was already mentioned.

Scotty

 

Exactly what Scotty said.

This is a commonly observed symptom when the timing is really screwed, at least one cyclinder is misfiring, or even if the thermostat fails open and the engine stays in warm-up (very rich) mode.

Steve

 

Retarded timing.
The fuel is still burning after the exhaust valves have opened.
Put it in time and the problem will go away.
Use a timing lite and clean the front damper off so you can see the timing marks and set it to spec with the SPOUT plug removes, then replace the plug.

 

what is the SPOUT plug?

 

What Bluegrass said,, not sure what spout plug is tho.

 

300 6, best engine ford ever made. I ran them untill they quit making them.
I agree with it being a timing issue,, same thing happened to me. I would bet if you pulled the distributer you will find the gear on the end of the shaft is dammaged and it slipped a cog or two.. easy and inexpensive fix
Good Luck

 

Assuming the engine is fuel injected, there is a plug in line to the distributor that passes the computer calculated timing back to the distributor TFI to fire the coil.
When setting base timing you must remove this plug, set the timing to the specs marked on the damper, then return the plug back to it's socket.
If you try to time with it in, the timing will be very retarded to the tune of close to 15* +/-.

 

what year truck do you have? It took me a lot of searching to find the spout connector because some years have it and some don't-- and I think it may even be in different locations on different trucks. If yours is a 95 I can give you a digital pic of mine so you know EXACTLY whre it is.

If you have one, though, you cannot time it appropriately without disconnecting the SPOUT connector first. The computer tries to compensate too much and it just gets it WAY screwed up.

 

A red hot exhaust manifold is usually the result of either an extremely lean mixture, or severely retarded ignition timing. Since you said you were trying to adjust your timing when this happened, and you aren't familiar with the SPOUT connector, I'm betting that's the problem. As mentioned, find and remove the SPOUT plug, and then set the timing. Make sure you are using the timing pointer visible from the passenger side of the truck. Some 300's have a pointer on the drivers side, but it's not for use with a standard timing light.

 

Oh, that's right!~

I had forgotten about that. There are TWO timing marks, one on the right and one on the left side of the engine. If you're looking at the wrong one it'll really get messed up even if you do the spout connector. The one on the right (standing in front of the engine) is a leftover, a vestige from a former incarnation of the engine. Don't use it. The other one (of course the one which is hard as you-know-what to see) is the correct one. And even then, there can be issues because the pulley can migrate after time.

I tell you what I did, I timed mine with a vaccum gauge. By far the easiest method. Disconnect the SPOUT sensor, hook up the gauge to the manifold and,with the engine warmed up and at idle, adjust the timing till you hit maximum vaccuum. Make sure you wear heavy gloves, else you could get a nasty shock. Then retard the timing 1-2 degrees and call it done.

I found this out at fordsix.com, those guys at that site know EVERYTHING about this engine.

 

Vacuum gauges are wonderful. They're great for setting idle mixture as well as ignition timing. Then there's all the diagnostics you can do with one...