Backfiring while driving

[Hornet]

I took my car to the garage and basically just ticked off every box so I had it tuned and repaired and everything.

It was fine on the highway driving home but when I got onto the dirt roads, it started backfiring a lot and at one point I thought I saw something coming out of the hood by the radiator... maybe smoke? maybe nothing?

Did I break something on my way back home?

On the dirt roads I try to keep the car in first or second gear. Could over revving the engine cause it to backfire like that?

[Marcomies]

The engine could be breaking from overheating. First and second gear are really low gears for constant use if you are moving faster than 20-30 km/h.

[RinChanMeow]

Sounds like your car is overheating, and as it overheats the engine needs more fuel to run correctly, which is the backfiring. I would refill the radiator with coolant (as that is probably what you saw coming out) and readjust the carb so that the engine is running with slightly more fuel. (easier to adjust with the air/fuel mixture gauge). With the stock radiator, the car overheats pretty easily over the 4000 - 5000RPM range.

[Slësu-snam]

Just a tip; first gear is not a driving gear. Use it to get the car started, then never shift down to it again unless you're going REALLY slowly (parking lots, perhaps). Running on such a high RPM could very well cause overheating, like others have said.

[Keira]

Did you check if your belt was still there? I was driving on the highway at speed when something similar started happening to my car. Mixture number was going up and so was temperature. I pulled over and found that the belt had broken, so that's when I learned that one "tick" from the end of the alternator bracket was still too tight. Got a new belt and adjusted the alternator to be two "ticks" from the end of the bracket and it has been fine since. :)

[KoolBreeze]

This happened to me and the car was low on oil so if anyone is still looking for an answer check your fluids before doing anything if you're backfiring your fuel to air mixture is too high purchase the gauge this is the best way to tune the carburetors and only adjust when you get the car warmed up enough to backfire than adjust the carb just take your screwdriver with you on a ride or rev it up in the garage, some say the sweet spot for the fuel to air mixture is 15.8. I have mine at 14.9 or 15.2.

[accent]

You can overheat even in third gear if you drive very fast. Overheating from too high revs on fourth gear, though, will be the least of your problems if you're driving that fast.

[thescaryone]

He tunes your carbs to 15.6 hot AFR. If you had stock parts you probably started overheating and running super lean immediately.