How do you get flames to shoot out of your exhaust

thexav

Pro Tuner
Staff member
Points
407
Car
2002 Clio 172
In the movies you often see blue flames shooting out of the exhaust. At car shows it can be more like a flamethrower, and in rally and motorsports you get flames popping out of the exhaust from time to time.

Why do you get flames from the exhaust? Why are they different colours and how can you tune an engine so it spits flames from the exhaust?
 
Firstly you want the flame to drive the piston in the combustion chamber and don't really want all that energy to shoot out down the exhaust.

In highly tuned motorsports applications they can use an anti lag system to keep the turbo spinning, or they might be running such tight tolerances that on lift off the exhaust valves are still partially open and some of flame escapes.

https://www.torquecars.com/tuning/anti-lag-systems.php


THIS WILL KILL A CATALYST, they do not like unburned fuel and sooty flames going through them

On show cars you can get flamer kits that add a fuel injector and spark plug to the exhaust and effectively act like a flame thrower, this flame is usually yellow and very sooty, whereas that coming from the engine tends to burn cleanly and is usually a blue colour.
 

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