You read it correctly, I had sparks coming from my tailpipe during an Italian tuneup.

I went on a nine hour trip to pick up a lawn mower and some other stuff. All the stuff was on a trailer I was pulling. Total weight I will guess at 2500 lbs.

I knew there was a large hill coming up. So I flored the peddal. The hill was about a mile and a half up one side, at an average 35 or so degree grade. I kept the peddal pushed to the floor the entire cimb up the hill.

After reaching the top and starting to decend the other side I pegged the speedometer at 85 for a minute or so. Probably reached 95 to 100 mph.

(It was 3:00 in the morining and I made sure no other vehicles were around. I don't ever want to hurt someone whith my crazy stunts.)

Then I let off the peddal and shifted to nuetral. Then gunned the engine to its max rpm several times, letting off quickly. Thats when the sparks started shooting out the exhaust pipe

Scared the heck out of me at first. I thought it had caught fire !!! or I had blown the transmission, engine, rear end ?

It runs better now, but I wonder what caused the sparks ??

Italian tune up to the extream. brought to you by your frindly nutcase, RichC.

Thank You

( do not try this at home ) ( I am not suggesting you do this with your car ) ( Do not try to sue me for reading this and then going out and doing something stupid ) ( I am not responsible for others stupidity, just my own )

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When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix

Having done what sounds like the some thing a time or two I would guess that sparks were from deposits built up in the exhaust system that were superheated by the "tune up" and then blown out the tailpipe. Not necessarily healthy for the engine to run that hard for that long but if the engine is running O. K. now it is probably cleaned out a little.
My experience with this symthom was with an engine that was using a little oil and had heavy deposits in the muffler that burned out at extended periods of full throttle under load, (like pulling a trailer uphill).
Al

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2007 Mini Cooper 4K miles
1993 300E 2.8 120K miles
1961 Morris Minor 42K miles
1965 Morris Minor 23K miles
1997 Ford F150 235K miles
1987 Ramcharger 202K miles
1984 Chevy C-30 farm truck 88Kmiles
1968 XKE 59K miles
2001 Harley Softtail
2003 Harley Roadking

What amazes me is your car's capability to pull such a load up a steep incline. What was the speed it slowed to?
As far as the sparks out the tailpipe. If it were a gas burner, I would say it was backfire or afterfire after such a high rev.
Another time with flames out the tailpipe I can remember is from my childhood. Batman & Robin were driving. Paul.

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1984 300CD red/blk 290,000 partial resto
1980 240D 4 sp Brn/palomino gone
1997 Mazda Miata STO edition wife's baby
1988 Lincoln Mark VII LSC next resto
1986 Subaru GL wagon daily
1993 Isuzu pickup field beater
2008 Honda Civic EX-L 5sp wife's new car
1978 Honda XL350
1974 Honda XL70 my Calif. ride in HS

This car amazes me also. Bought it on eBay for $810.00

I think I slowed to about 50 or so going uphil. My guess of the grade of the hill could be way off.

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When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix

A 6-8 degree grade is pretty steep, a 35 degree grade is an Olympic ski jump.

I wouldn't want to see a 6 degree grade.........that's a 10% grade. Most steep hills on a limited access highway are in the 6-7% range..........about 4 degrees.

A couple of the hills in San Francisco are 32% grades........about 18 degrees.......and they seem like a mountain. You definitely need first gear for them.

You're right, that's very steep. There are some mountain roads around here that may be that steep, but not many. The steepest highway grades here are also about 7% (Vail Pass on I-70 is 10,666ft with a 7% grade) and that's still pretty steep.

COOL

i just want to clear up some of the manual transmission talk.

in most manual transmission that are driving around the earth today. the gear boxes are in constant mesh. the gears never come apart. NEVER. the way the gears are engaged is with a dog collar. heres a diagram.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_transmission

and anyone curious should read the entire webpage

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Current
2006 E320 CDI, 57K bought at 67K "Liesl"
1986 190E 2.3-16, 198K bought at 56K "Brigitta"
1987 300TD (Chuggin Along), 292K "Friedrich"
1995 E320 Wagon, 200K "Louisa"

Past
1987 300SDL, (sold) 125K, bought for 1$ "Kurt"

Personally, I find the Italitan tune up one of the most highly overrated techniques out there. If you have had your diesel out on the highway cruising for a nice 75 mph run you have pretty well cleaned it out as much as you need to, IMHO.

The Italian tuneup came from the days of carburated Ferraris and the cruddy fuel available at the time.

You are driving your multiple carburated Ferrari along and one of the carbs gets a little fleck of crud stuck in the needle valve, so the float will not shut off the fuel flow and too much fuel floods the carb spilling over into the intake. This loads up the cylinders being supplied by the malfunctioning carb. It begins to run roughly. The cure in the old days was to floor it and run as much fuel through the carb as possible in the hope that it would dislodge the crud. It worked sometimes.

What this has to do with a diesel is beyond me.

Now back when I had the 350sdl the intake was full of gooey tarlike stuff and when driving it on the highway for a while that stuff would dislodge and cause a puff of carbon out the back which was quite visible at night.

That was a little like blowing your nose.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.