Put on my new hooker headers and sidepipes this winter and now starting to run the car, test some other mods, etc. (they are the ceramic coated versions, btw).

When I get the car warmed up I see a small glow on a few of the pipes so I am wondering is this bad? I have a wideband AF gauge and the car is running slightly rich. I also have an IR temp sensor and they are reading between 450-650 degrees.

Is this is within normal operating rage?>

 

Sure it is. If you see a 'slight glow' and you know it's a tad rich then there is no problem at all. When breaking in a cam & running 20 minutes at 2500RPM, you'll see headers get BRIGHT RED. Doesn't hurt them a bit.

 

Same thing happened to my Hookers. Problem was the timing, had to advance it more.

 

up the exhaust valve and header. Read the timing post up top of this discussion board for advice.