Cheap headers question

[ragtopfury]

Never ran headers before in my life. Put a pair of $100 ebay shorty headers on the 360 that I pieced together in the Shelby Dakota. They have a chrome-ish finish. Fully expect them to turn blue-ish after a few heat cycles, and they are. My question is this - Should they get a slightly red tint to them when the engine is at operationg temp? Like at the outside bends and near the collector? Is that normal for the cheap ones?

 

[Craig Burriss]

Is it just a color change? Or are they glowing? If you can see them glowing in the dark then you probably have too much timing or too little fuel.

 

[roccodart440]

Too little timing at idle can also cause header tubes to glow when idling or at part throttle because the fire in the cylinder is igniting too late and is still burning when the exhaust valve opens and the fire goes out into the headers, causing them to glow.