Okay, I decided to take my car around some nice backroads on the way home today. As I was pulling in, I decided to take a look under the hood and admire my Samco hose setup and saw what looked like another red hose. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was my exhaust manifold and turbo that were so hot that they were glowing orange. I have the TAP chip sans wastegate spring, is this common? I'm going full RS2 come springtime, should I wait and do everything (injectors, exhaust cam, exhaust manifold, K26 turbo, intake manifold, RS2 MAF, MTM software) or just go MTM stage III for now (EM and turbo)?

Thanks,
Joe

Its normal for the manifold to get red hot especialy if you runing higher boost with stock manifold and stock turbo its perfectly normal.

I am installing the RS2 manifold now for a little peace of mind. I really don't want to fry any vavles before I get started with the big stuff...the number 1 and 5 valves are under some extreme temps with the added boost.

YEs, I've seen this as well on my 93 IA Stage 3.
It is an indication of the enormuos heat in that area. Many people move to the RS2 manifold, and improved exhaust to manage the heat load.

JP