Rebuilt engine idle problems, running rich

[MrChefur]

Something else I noticed: When I had the valve cover off, I noticed the timing chain was set to the 3 position on the cam sprocket. Could that have anything to do with all the issues I've had?

[Zed Head]

24 minutes ago, MrChefur said:

I'll be sure to check it again, but I've done that (as well as every single ECU resistance/voltage/continuity test in the EFI bible) already.

You said you had a new problem.  So old things you've checked might have changed, especially since you've been working on the engine.

[Zed Head]

19 minutes ago, MrChefur said:

Something else I noticed: When I had the valve cover off, I noticed the timing chain was set to the 3 position on the cam sprocket. Could that have anything to do with all the issues I've had?

Had or have?  Where is the notch compared to the groove?  That's the reason for the three holes, to get those aligned.

It could indicate a very worn engine though, that somebody has been adjusting to stay in tune.  Might just be worn out.  The black plugs might be from oil burning.

Edited August 29, 2017 by Zed Head

[MrChefur]

3 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

Had or have?  Where is the notch compared to the groove?  That's the reason for the three holes, to get those aligned.

It could indicate a very worn engine though, that somebody has been adjusting to stay in tune.  Might just be worn out.  The black plugs might be from oil burning.

 Had. I put the valve cover back on to run the engine.

I didn't think to check the notch and groove, I just looked at where the black chain link was lined up.  I'll add that to the check list as well.

[siteunseen]

16 hours ago, MrChefur said:

Something else I noticed: When I had the valve cover off, I noticed the timing chain was set to the 3 position on the cam sprocket. Could that have anything to do with all the issues I've had?

I learned the hard way that shiny or darker link moves around each revolution of the motor.  It'll line up every so often on it's own when it hits top dead center.  I built both my motors and set them to #3.  All the old mechanics and things I read said it would give them more low end "grunt" off the line.  With all the Cops around I don't need top end. 

Here's what you need to line up.

  

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by siteunseen

[madkaw]

WOW- you got a lot going on here. I didn't see anywhere in this thread as whether you did a good check on battery voltage and alternator output. 

 

[MrChefur]

21 minutes ago, madkaw said:

WOW- you got a lot going on here. I didn't see anywhere in this thread as whether you did a good check on battery voltage and alternator output. 

 

Haha, I sure do have a lot. I didn't post it, but battery and alternator are both solid.

1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

I learned the hard way that shiny or darker link moves around each revolution of the motor.  It'll line up every so often on it's own when it hits top dead center.  I built both my motors and set them to #3.  All the old mechanics and things I read said it would give them more low end "grunt" off the line.  With all the Cops around I don't need top end. 

Here's what you need to line up.

Alright, thanks. I checked again (gonna need a new valve cover gasket with all this pulling off and putting back on, lol) and the notches line up just fine. Scratch that off the list.

[MrChefur]

Alright, here's a video of what it's doing. Blowing a little bit of white smoke on idle, then solid black when I press the throttle. It's not burning coolant, the head gasket is fine.

https://youtu.be/Pt9ZTYuSSOE

[Zed Head]

Is that fully warmed up?  Water is a product of combustion.  It would just be steam if the engine is cold.

[7tooZ]

We've had an engine that leaked coolant while was cold and the stopped when warmed up. Maybe?


Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[MrChefur]

Fully warmed up in the video. Both coolant and oil have no signs of head gasket failure, compression is also fine.

[Zed Head]

Running rich smells like raw gasoline.  Does your nose work well?  No offense.  Smoking can kill the sense of smell.

So, this is problem now?

On 8/28/2017 at 7:22 PM, MrChefur said:

The car backfires out of the exhaust if I blip the throttle from idle, and my plugs are solid black which indicates the car is running rich.

You have a running engine so all that you can really do from this point is tune the parts that control fuel.  I notice though that you haven't actually provided a number for resistance on Pin 13, at the ECU connector, along with the temperature of the sensor when the resistance was measured.  Even though it's been brought up several times. No offense, again, but this often means the person just did the simple continuity test or has a cheap meter that gives poor data.  It's very important.  At operating temperature the range is in the tens of ohms, 290 to 360 ohms.  A few ohms matter.

Then there's fuel pressure.  It's critical.  That, and the quality of the FPR, it might be leaking internally.  Check the vacuum hose, if you haven't yet (can't remember if you did already).

You need to be positive that those are right, then check the AFM internals.  If it looks like it's been messed with (the glue blob) then you can calibrate it using Used-to-be-Blue's technique on atlanticz.ca.

After you've confirmed and/or fixed all of those things, the last one is to replace the ECU.  But those usually cause much worse problems than you have.

You have to be fastidious to really make good progress with the EFI systems.