99 dakota rt i have just finished rebuilding my lower end put new pace setter headers on from jegs and a new fuel pump i have no cat and a magnaflow cat back exaust on 3 in pipes to 3-1/2 in tips it starts fine but every time i take it for a sort ride it will shut down and wont restart for a while i just discovered while i had it running with the hood up for about five mins that the headers had turned bright red so i shut it of what might be the problem and how might i double check to see if it is that problem


p.s. running lean? to far advanced timing? although never touched timing. oil pump?

 

headers are known to get red, exhaust is hot.... also I would imagine it depends on the quality of material used in the headers... my suggestion is to get the headers ceramic coated or wrapped... if you are in MI, QC coatings in Shelby Twp. do a great job.... as for not staying on, maybe becasue you have little to no back pressure....

 

Also look at the fact that it is a 99 with no cats. Where are the o2 sensors conected? with out the cat the down stream snesor if equiped would see and overly rich condition and reduce fuel and adjust timing think that it was getting to much.

 

Thus, causing you to run lean = temps will skyrocket, which could be why your manifold is red. Mine, get really hot but never viewably red and I'm turbo'd. Your ECU might be shutting you down because of that, never heard of that happening but then again, we're in different circles. Also, I agree about the material, that might be normal for that header, but it does seem a little off. What do your temp gauges read? Are they normal?

 

i had the same headers in the before i replace them due to damage to the tubes the old headers never turned red as far as the cat i had the same problem with the truck shutting off before i removed it . i removed it because i noticed it to was turning bright red and figured it was clogged butt after removing it i found no such problem i was wondering if to high a heat range plug might cause this the plugs i put in after the rebuild are bosch plantinum plugs got at autozone they were the ones that were for the vehicle

 

Red pipes are a sign of retarded timing also.I'm not very familiar with Chrysler products but if there was a sensor malfunction that would cause the ECM to pull timing when the engine didn't need it might cause the problem.An overly rich mixture will normally cool the exhaust gasses so I don't think this is the problem.A lean condition will usually burn completly before the exhaust valve opens so I don't think this is the problem either.
How are the coolant temps?Retarded timing will cause the engine to run generally hotter and cause a drop in performance and fuel economy.Idling engines should never have red hot pipes.

 

Technically, timing retard won't cause poor performance alone...it's knock (predetonation)...it will cause timing retard and this will normally happen if the motor is running lean on gas and rich on air = knock, and a lean running motor does get very hot (think about this one chopper...you just stated...so, the opposite will be.....
This is why EGT gauges are used to help in tuning a motor (back in the day and even still, now), wideband gauges are better for this, but if you have both you will see that your wideband will read lean and your egt will read hot. Your egt sensor is also normally found on or around an exhaust header. Lean=higher heat, knock, and timing retard.

Although, I'm beginning to think that in this situation...it's the material used to make the header, possibly being too thin walled = red header.

 

im thinking its the timing maybe caused by an o2 sensor or something because the vehicle is idling at 1k rpms it should be more like 700 the cat that was on it had an o2 sensor connected to the front of it when i took it out no check engine light came on so if i unplug the o2 sensor that is fuether back would that fix it

 

The rear o2 tells the computer whether the cat is working or not and if you remove it completely, you will get a CEL. The front o2 is what would be suspect because that one tells the computer whether to run richer or leaner depending on what it reads in the stream. Those o2 sensors are pretty fragile, if it bumps around while you were changing the header it may have been damaged.


*edit
Check your timing (wouldn't hurt), and adjust your idle speed. Since you don't have the cat anymore what did you do with the rear o2?

 

i was told by people at autozone it has none adjustable timing and i dont know how to adjust the idle speed i dont have a computer to do it with the o2 sensor that was attached to the cat is unplugged i couldnt get it off the cat the rest of them are still plugged in