Slowly getting the car into shape! Out today. When you down shift when slowing down (or whatever), the exhaust splutters and pops. It sounds superb, like an old V8, but if due to rich running or some other reason, is this likely to cause any damage to the engine?
Thanks
Ed

It may well be a small air leak in the exhaust manifold somewhere, it wont do any damage to the engine but it can blow the packing out of your silencer in short time if it does it a lot. Probably worth it for the noise though

It never ceased to amaze me the b0ll0cks people spout out about this subject and lengths they go to to try and stop it.

In short it is a good thing if it back fires / pops when on the overrun.

If you want a full explaination why read up on the subject on google etc.

[Edited on 13/3/07 by andyharding]

Thanks Gents
Won't lose any sleep over it for a while then!
Ed

No it shouldn't cause any damage.. (see below)

With a carbd'd engine its just the "idle" mixture being burned in the exhaust.. or the unburned proportion of it...

With a fuel injection engine, it depends on how the engine is setup.. A good fuel injection sytem will pretty much shut off fuel to the injectors when you lift off the throttle, so they shouldnt pop/backfire excessively... if it does, you may want to check your fuel pressure regulator is properly connected to the vacuum line (this is what opens to return fuel to the tank when you lift off the throttle)..

Other things to check are the throttle position sensor, and finally the exhaust headers..

I don't agree backfires are a good thing, as I have seen mufflers blown apart, but the certainly arent as bad as you would think, as in most cases its just unburned fuel...

Cheers
It's on carbs and so far it is exactly as we picked it up regarding tune. Goes well, sounds superb but as long as its OK for the mo, I'll leave it until we get a checkup done.
Regards
Ed