Ok guys, after making the mistake of selling my '85 Turbo Sunbird to a buddy of mine out of state, I finally bugged him enough to sell it back to me. While the vehicle was in his posession he had a head gasket replaced and the boost controller removed by a tech at the VW dealership he's a service writer at. When I came to pick the car up which he sold back to me for 500 less than he bought it from me for, he said it won't hold coolant, the car idles all over the place, and the check engine light flashes. After getting the car home I installed a radiator cap (missing) so now all the coolant stays in the car and I removed the paper clip shoved into the DLC so now the idle is stable. The problem I'm having is with the car sitting at idle, the exhaust manifold gets so hot it glows red. When I owned the car before it would only do this if I just came back in from running her hard. Does anybody have any tips on a good place to start in my search to eliminate this problem? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

To me this points to a blocked up cat convertor! If the car was running rich which may or may not explain the by pass for idle meaning it was too low or high.A easy way or cheap way is cut off the cat and run straight pipe as temp and see if it is glowing red or stupid hot.This points to alot of back pressure from the cat which would make it do as you described.I would not just replace the cat and see what happens.A piece of pipe and some clamps are a better alternative at first to see if it improves the problem.Not to mention a blocked muffler as well even tho the cat convertor getting replaced may help but,it can still contamintate the muffler being it is wayyyyyy to old to begin with.That is where I would start bc you have a restriction and the backpressure is making it hot.

Thanks for the input. The only thing is, the cat and muffler went into the dumpster years ago. It's the same straight exhaust system that has been on the car since I had it and was looking for a little more power. I'm at a loss with this thing. I really regret selling the little car in the first place.

Check for a failing plastic air duct elbow. This caused mine to glow when I still had the stock tune on my 84