Rich Exhaust Smell
- Thread starter Silver Fox
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Is your cowl seal still in place?
Are you running a pcv?
Whats prolly happening is the fumes from the crankcase are evacuating through the valve cover breathers. If the cowl seal is missing these fumes will roll right into the intake for the cabin air.
This will be magnified when not running a pcv.
Are you running a pcv?
Whats prolly happening is the fumes from the crankcase are evacuating through the valve cover breathers. If the cowl seal is missing these fumes will roll right into the intake for the cabin air.
This will be magnified when not running a pcv.
Running without a cat will definately make the car seem to smell rich, and will cause the sooting spitting, and sooty pipes.
Has a lot to do with the open loop idle until the car reaches it's closed loop settings. My chip closes the idle loop when coolant temps are up to proper levels, and mine even smells and spits.
EXCEPT, when I put the cat back on. Everything changes(what's coming out the pipe) then. Car no longer smells or soots up the floor. But the butt dyno senses the loss of power.
Has a lot to do with the open loop idle until the car reaches it's closed loop settings. My chip closes the idle loop when coolant temps are up to proper levels, and mine even smells and spits.
EXCEPT, when I put the cat back on. Everything changes(what's coming out the pipe) then. Car no longer smells or soots up the floor. But the butt dyno senses the loss of power.
blipmode188
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I was wondering the same thing. My car is right on the scanmaster numbers after I put in new injectors and still smells like it is running rich, especially at idle.
No cat on the car !
Also and I think there is a good link on this site, but can an out of adjustment cam sensor cause a rich smell even thought the numbers seem ok ?
Thanks Steve
No cat on the car !
Also and I think there is a good link on this site, but can an out of adjustment cam sensor cause a rich smell even thought the numbers seem ok ?
Thanks Steve
berserker6
Assistant to the regional manager
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FWIW i have 55# injectors, electric dump and barely smell fuel if at all. are you able to isolate where the smell is coming from? is it from the front or back of the car?
Silver Fox
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PCV valve is in place. Cowl seal is in place and appears to be in good shape.
I believe my ECM is resetting itself and going in and out of "open" loop. I discovered the positive cable and ECM lead on the positive cable are in bad shape (someone had a big stereo in the car at some point and they hacked up the positive cable and ECM lead - had all the hack work covered up with detail tape so I never noticed it until I pulled the tape off). I have ordered a new positive and negative cable on they are on the way. I will replace them and update the thread and let you all know if that helps out.
Beserker6 - smell seems to be coming from the tailpipes. I have not discovered any obvious exhaust leaks from anywhere in the system, but will put the car up on a lift and check again when I install the new battery cables.
Thanks for all the help.
Rob
Silver Fox
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Problem seems to be solved
I just took the car for about an hour drive (filled it up - $51.00 dollars - ouch). Anyways, I got back home and I didn't have any exhaust smell on my clothes to speak of.
Cure - I replaced both my positive and negative batter cables. The negative appeared to be okay. The positive cable is another story. It had the GM "platic conduit" wrap around it, and detail tape in other areas. Other than the aftermarket ends, it looked okay. I tore the wrap and detail tape off, and here is what I found (keep in mind I figured out after I bought the car that someone had a huge stereo system in it at one point and had apparently modified the positive cable to run amps, leads, etc.):
Picture #1:
This was the cable going to the alternator. It 's a different grade of wire than a normal battery cable - has many, many fine lines versus heavy duty cable. Also, the fusible link on the ECM wire had been removed and the orange wire crimped right onto the connecter. You can also see a wire had been soldered into the ECM wire at some point (this was covered by detail tape).
Picture #2:
This one is even more interesting. I mentioned that aftermarket wire was used for the connection to the battery. Just a few inches below this, the wire was spliced into the original alternator wire with some sort of brass junction. This junction was covered with heat shrink, and looked very nice from the outside.
Picture #3:
Just another view from a little further back.
Picture #4:
Here is a view of the connector and wire that ran to the starter. Again, it had detail wrap all around it which made it look very nice. I took the tape off and the connecter actually fell off into my hand.
So, I am thinking this wiring was bad enough that the computer was resetting itself all the time, and chip had to continually relearn settings, causing it to run rich like it was initially starting up after a chip swap.
Thanks TurboNasty, JDPolzin, Eric, and Jay for helping out on this matter.
Rob
I just took the car for about an hour drive (filled it up - $51.00 dollars - ouch). Anyways, I got back home and I didn't have any exhaust smell on my clothes to speak of.
Cure - I replaced both my positive and negative batter cables. The negative appeared to be okay. The positive cable is another story. It had the GM "platic conduit" wrap around it, and detail tape in other areas. Other than the aftermarket ends, it looked okay. I tore the wrap and detail tape off, and here is what I found (keep in mind I figured out after I bought the car that someone had a huge stereo system in it at one point and had apparently modified the positive cable to run amps, leads, etc.):
Picture #1:
This was the cable going to the alternator. It 's a different grade of wire than a normal battery cable - has many, many fine lines versus heavy duty cable. Also, the fusible link on the ECM wire had been removed and the orange wire crimped right onto the connecter. You can also see a wire had been soldered into the ECM wire at some point (this was covered by detail tape).
Picture #2:
This one is even more interesting. I mentioned that aftermarket wire was used for the connection to the battery. Just a few inches below this, the wire was spliced into the original alternator wire with some sort of brass junction. This junction was covered with heat shrink, and looked very nice from the outside.
Picture #3:
Just another view from a little further back.
Picture #4:
Here is a view of the connector and wire that ran to the starter. Again, it had detail wrap all around it which made it look very nice. I took the tape off and the connecter actually fell off into my hand.
So, I am thinking this wiring was bad enough that the computer was resetting itself all the time, and chip had to continually relearn settings, causing it to run rich like it was initially starting up after a chip swap.
Thanks TurboNasty, JDPolzin, Eric, and Jay for helping out on this matter.
Rob
berserker6
Assistant to the regional manager
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Good job! And great pics.
turbo nasty
Turbo Dojo / MNTR
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Wow wiring FAIL on their part.Thats Crap work!!!
Glad you got it fixed up. Now set the boost to 24 psi
Glad you got it fixed up. Now set the boost to 24 psi
Silver Fox
Well-Known Member
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Wow wiring FAIL on their part.Thats Crap work!!!
Glad you got it fixed up. Now set the boost to 24 psi
Yes it was crap work. I'll stick to 20 psi for now...
