Now let’s be honest here, who doesn’t like flame-spitting cars? The boy inside us has always wanted to have a car with its exhaust spitting flames. But the question is, how to do that safely without potentially melting those pistons off? Another question is that supercars, like the Lamborghini Aventador, can easily spit flames. But is it possible on a normal car? The answer to all these questions is a resounding Yes!
Let us learn how to make your car exhaust spit flames and the science behind it. By following this article, you can make your car spit flames in an easy manner.
Table of Contents
How Do Cars Emit Flames From Exhaust?
The unburnt fuel that has made its way into the exhaust is the main cause of flames shooting out of the exhaust. The unburnt fuel ignites due to the extremely hot temperature of the exhaust area and when you revving really hard, it causes flames to shoot out. Normally if your engine is running very rich, it means that more fuel is being dumped into the combustion chamber than required.
This excess fuel flows through the exhaust and ignites causing flames. In the case of hyper and sports cars, a small amount of fuel is deliberately sprayed into the exhaust to create that crackle, which can also cause a flame.
How To Make Your Car Exhaust Spit Flames?
The main reason for the flames to shoot out from a car’s pipes is the ignition of the unburnt fuel has been dumped into the exhaust system and has hence caught fire. Here are the ways through which you can make your car a flame thrower-
1. Delete Catalytic Convertor
the easiest and most common method or way to get your flamethrower on is to get rid of that catalytic converter. The main job of the catalytic converter is to clean up the harmful stuff like fuel from exiting the car. It is great for the environment but bad for spitting flames out of the exhaust. The converter has a fine mesh of ceramic material that will absorb or prevent the flow of unburnt fuel.
So by removing that, you are creating a path for the fuel to flow easily and ignite in that hot environment.
2. Engine Remapping/Tunning
Popularly known as the pops, bangs, and flames maps, will help your exhaust to pop, bang, and kick flames from the tailpipe whenever you lift off the throttle or during downshifts. They are hugely popular these days. This is a bit of a controversial subject in the tuning scene at the moment. With modern engine management being so precise and accurate, these things can be easily achieved.
Normally on an engine when you close the throttle, your fuel injectors don’t fire at all, but with an ECU remap, you can reverse this, along with retardation of engine timing to have that burble from the exhaust. The answer for how to make your car exhaust spit flames is a simple remap.
3. Exhaust Flame Thrower Kit
There are these kits in the market that can cause exhaust flames from the back of your car. These items are designed to prevent accept some over-revving by modifying ignition and thus producing an open flame at the exhaust. The flame thrower kits are compact by design for easy installation. These kits are available according to and depending on the size engine.
Whether you have fuel injection or carburetor, and depending on what aftermarket modifications you have done to your engine.
4. The Neat Old Throttle Trick
This is probably one of the easiest ways to produce flames out of the exhaust, as it requires zero or little modification. accelerate hard on a lower gear with a wide-open throttle. At higher revs, slide your foot off the accelerator in order to quickly snap the throttle shut.
What this neat trick does is that all the fuel and air that had been dumped into the combustion chamber, is now suddenly not needed by the engine and it doesn’t get lit. Instead, all the gas gets spat into the exhaust, where it will ignite on the hot surface, causing pops and bangs.
5. Tips For Old Carburatted Cars
It is easier to do the exhaust trick in those old carburetted cars. Though it will not be as precise as the one with a legit ECU tunning, then it won’t burn a hole in your pocket either. All you need to do is to make the timing a bit advanced. Be careful with that and not go too crazy, be within the tolerance limits. After that, make the fuel mixture richer and you are all set to go.
At higher revs, when you’ll lift the throttle in quick successions, it’ll make a popping sound.
Is A Flame Throwing Exhaust Legal And Safe?
For most of the part, absolutely not. While how to make your car exhaust spit flames can be an easy answer but by modifying any part of the exhaust on the car, you are breaking many emission-related rules, which can be illegal in many states. So, flame-throwing kits or deleting the emission devices are illegal, and if you get one installed in your car, you’ve just been warned of the consequences. However, simple ECU tuning is legal, but still, you can get into trouble for noise-related laws.
Along with that, if you go too crazy with the tune, then you can easily blow your engine. The flames from the exhaust can also harm someone behind in the traffic too.
How Much Will It Cost To Get The Flames Going?
If you are eyeing the simple modifications like timing retard and fuel mixture settings in an old carbureted engine, then you can have the job done for under 100$. The ECU tunes have a wide variety in the range of 500-1000$, there are a lot of options and you can go crazy. Flame thrower kits can be had in the range of 200-500$.
Conclusion
In ensuring how to make your car exhaust spit flames, you have to make sure that you are taking care of the engine parameters and working within the limits. Also, look out for the local laws or else you can be in real big trouble for messing things up. If you still have any questions, then comment down below.