I have a LE 1 heads/cam swap, What are some things to check that would cause the car to run very excessively rich? When I say excessively rich, I mean to the point were the engine floods, and all the plugs foul. The car will run with clean plugs, but will run really rich, and even if I kill the ignition, it will fire back up and it will actually drive, but if I leave it for the night and try it in the morning, the car will no longer fire and when you pull the plugs, there is nasty amounts of carbon buildup on the plugs. Also if you pull the plugs right after running the car they come out soaking wet with gas.

Issues already looked at are as follows:

-The car currently has the stock 22 lb/hr injectors back in, cuz I thought the overkill 42 Lb/hr might have been the cause both sets of injectors do essentially the same thing, but the 42 lb/hr ones are just a bit worse about flooding the motor, both sets have perfect O rings also.

-The plug wires are in correct firing order

-It has a brand new walbro 255 in the tank, and the stock fuel pressure regulator. I can only assume fuel pressure is not an issue here, cuz its running too rich, suggesting that fuel pressure is not an issue.

-The valve timing/spark timing must be correct cuz the car runs and drives with fresh plugs and if it wasn't I wouldn't think that would be a possibility.

-The tuning must be correct cuz it was flashed 3 different times on 2 different chips (twice on the first chip, once on the second) by Ion, whom has done tons of fbodies. Also the adapter/chip must be reading properly, cuz if it wasn't the car would go into a failsafe mode, where the check engine light goes on and the fans kick on.

-The chip is set to run the PCM in open loop mode and oxygen sensors were disconnected, ruling that out of being a possibility.

What else is there that would cause running excessivly rich that I am not looking at yet?

 

what are your BLMs?

check your fuel pressure, if too high(regulator or return line blocked) it will be rich

 

what are BLMs?

 

i highly doubt that it is the problem, but I will check fuel pressure tommorrow.

 

Are you running LT's? I had a similar problem until i converted to the heated 02's. 93's have the single wire o2s which is ok until u put some LT's on there. Fixed my problem of running rich.

 

yea I vote for the 02's

 

LT Fuel Trims. You need a scanning tool to see. They will tell you if the PCM is seeing a rich condition.

 

damn it guys, lol, thats the first thing I actaully would've thought of... look here

I realize in open loop the car will run richer, but not to the point were your fouling out plugs everytime you start the engine... Every car runs in open loop on cold start up (until o2s get up to operating temp)...

 

I wish I has any scan or programming tools, i'm sure they would help out a great deal.. But then again, I don't care if the PCM see's a rich condition, I see a rich condition based on the brown/black smoke, the extremely strong smell of raw fuel, and the spark plugs coming out a dark black the following morning. ****, my parents told me the thing was running to rich from the gas fumes that seep into there bedroom from when the car is running in the garage with the garage door open and the house door closed, lol. Now I just wish I knew what to do about it and what is causing it even after a mail order tune. I am working on getting a fuel pressure gauge from a friend who works at a shop to avoid paying the $45 for one, so I will check that and hope that it is excessivly high, but I highly doubt that will be the case, cuz i'm pretty sure the guy who built my engine had to have looked at that before he fired the car up the first time, but i will double check either way.

Would a vaccuum leak cause running rich? There isn't a noticable vaccuum leak, but it is near impossible to check vaccuum with a gauge, since the car will not just idle by itself (I have to give it gas to keep it running, I beleive this is partially because when I clean the plugs out to get the carbon off them to allow them to fire again, I can't get to cylinder #6 without pulling the header and I just let it miss on that cylinder) and a proper vaccuum test would need to be done at idle.

Also, What should proper vaccuum be (assuming I can get it to idle at some point, i will test that) with a LE 1 cam? (I have the one on a 108LSA, I know lloyd changes his grinds often). Would a vaccuum leak even be a cause for running stupidly rich on these cars? I know on most car they just run rough or not at all, but I haven't ever seen that be a cause for running rich in the past, but I know these cars are quite fussy about anything being off..

 

Are you sure you got the cam timed correctly to the crank when you installed it? That could cause cylinders not to fire or fire at the wrong time which could cause the symptoms you have.

 

Mine was running REAL rich for a while. I would have to clear flood it to get it started, and it had black smoke coming out of the tailpipes. Turns out, the pigtail connector on my ECT was worn out, and giving my computer a false reading on the motors temperature, causing the computer to RICHEN the misture. Not sure if this will help or not, but just thought I would throw in my 2 cents.

 

When the plugs are clean, the car starts with barely even flipping the key and I can physically drive it. I haven't checked the valve timing cuz I figured the car wouldn't start or drive if it were off, but I am not sure.. Would the car start and physically drive if the cam timing was off?

 

I just went through that problem. I thought it was my opti spark. $800.00 later I found out it was NOT my opti spark!! it was the coolant temp sender and plug ---- $20.00 in parts!! made the car run so rich there were flames shooting out of the exhaust at the race track!!

It's cheap enough, try it first . . . wish I had.

 

Coolant temp sender and plug? where is that exactly, I didn't even was such a thing?

 

wow, it sounds like just about anything being off would cause this extemely rich condition. Is there any easy way of diagnosing what exactly it is without just replacing stuff left and right?