My 454 engine is running hot and has rust colored exhaust when first started. what is the cause?

* Stop using car!
* Check for breaks or cracks in exhaust pipe system.
* Check for cracks, rust holes in fire wall. (the wall between you and the engine.
* Fumes from engine exhaust has toxins and carbon monoxide.
* Explosive fumes can result from a over rich mixture.
* Cracks in exhaust affects the back pressure to engine.
* Crack in exhaust can direct hot fumes and may start fire when parked over rubbish or grass.
* Fumes can cause black out to passengers and driver.
* Have auto shop check system for fumes (co2 monitor) after fix.
* Be safe. Don't drive car till checked.
Aloha, ukeboy57

Electric choke? Try retrofitting a manual choke. I think the electric choke is closing over a hot engine, thinking that the engine's cooler than it really is. A manual choke will allow you to start it with no choke at all when you know the motor's already warmed up.

Either a obstructed catalytic convertor or a injector over fueling, also check valve adjustment and timing

This seems to be a symptom of a blown head gasket.
White exhaust smoke is an indication of water / coolant in the exhaust. The car running sluggish and using lots of fuel can be caused by compression loss.

Look at the coolant level color and smell (with cold engine - don't open the high pressure reservoir with engine hot as hot coolant may spray you in the face). If you have a blown gasket, the coolant color may become brownish and it may smell bad or the level will get lower even if you have just refilled the cooling system.

What you can also check for is bubbles in the reservoir. With engine cold, remove the reservoir cap. Start the engine. Try to rev the engine (or have someone do it) and observe if there are bubbles in the reservoir tank. If you see lots of bubbles, you have a blown gasket.

check for broken exhaust pipe or muffler could have hole rusted through muffler or check around exhaust manifold for exhaust leaks.

The exhaust manifold is going to get hot, this is where the engines exhaust flows through. these tempertures reach high temps,

If the manifold is glowing hot then theres a problem.

Sometimes people say the manifolds are getting to hot because they see them smoking. The reason on most of these cases is due to a leak, aleak from a bad gasket like a valve cover gasket. Engine oil leaks down on to the exhaust manifold causing smoke. make sure there are no leaks .


A few reasons that would cause exhaust manifold to heat up more than normal would be a engine thats running rich, this may be due to a leaking injector or a poor running engine. Another reason may be that you have a plugged cat. converter.

The Exhaust manifolds can reach about 600 degrees, the last thing is people hear the metal expand or contract and think there are getting to hot , this is normal.

Please let me know if there is something else i can help you with. thank you and have a good day.

Hi,
Normally, the hot no-start is caused by a faulty camshaft sensor or crankshaft sensor, usually the crankshaft sensor. Another possible cause for the cut out and die when hot can be a plugged catalytic converter or restricted exhaust. If your 11 year old car still has the original converter, I would suspect it (and some times the muffler) could be restricted due to the catalist inside the converter melting down from age and causing restriction. Sometimes particles will travel to the muffler restricting it also. A restricted exhaust will cause back pressure to the engine because exhaust gasses cannot escape at a rate suitable for the engine to run efficiently. Basically, it chokes your engine. Your exhaust can be checked with emmissions equiptment, but if you go under the car and see rust, dents in converter, or can shake it and hear anything rattling inside it, it is most likely faulty. A new exhaust sytem will make a world of difference on how your car runs, including less rough idle, more power and cleaner oil, less plug fouling and emissions sensor(s) fouling.
Check the exhaust out first and see if you have any computer trouble codes stored. Sometimes a downstream O2 sensor code can indicate a bad converter...........Mike

The thick rust stuff is your coolant. And a load of dissolved cooling system.

I think you'll find that after a long run, your engine overheated slightly, coolant expanded and had to go somewhere.

Your thermostat could do with a good look at, maybe also the water pump, perhaps changing (It is 10 years old now) and if its all a mucky brown, your coolant isn't doing its job properly, could do with renewing.

An engine that runs too rich or too lean, or an engine that has run while overheated can damage a converter. Also debris, including that from a rusted exhaust pipe, upstream of the converter can cause damage.

a bad converter will give off a "rotten egg" smell, restrict the exhaust & cause the engine to operate at a hotter temperature, the heater will be excessively hot, the radiator or heater core could begin to leak, hoses will have extra pressure on them & there will be blow-by fumes forcing their way back from the exhaust maniforld into the engine if the converter becomes too plugged. This causes your motor oil to become dirty much more quickly too, causing extra wear on the engine You can generally see a very rusted exhaust behind the converter once this has happened. You'll get a miss, followed by sputtering & eventually either a frozen motor, blown headgasket, cracked head, or other problems caused by heat. good luck