running rough!!

[robertisaar]

oil on the threads could be caused by LOTS of things... and black is unburnt fuel.

EDIT: black and flakey or black and glossy?

flakey is too rich, glossy is oil...

[Rootie524]

they are like matte black and have oil on the threads. im not too worried about it..i just need it to run well until i can put by built engine in.

i just thought id mention it in case it can help figure my issue out.

[robertisaar]

well.... since it's "matte", i would say that falls under flakey, which means you're somehow dumping too much fuel in the cylinders...

[Rootie524]

might have something to do with the dyno tune i had. i really freaking need a wideband o2.

[robertisaar]

even widebands have their limitations, especially when the PCM is operating on closed loop.

[Rootie524]

that's very true but it's better than having no way of knowing.

so since it's possible im too rich (ill post a pic eventually to be sure) would that cause my misfire. i dont think it would..i just think one or more of my injectors is clogged or something.

[robertisaar]

going so rich it can foul your plugs? yeah, that'll cause a misfire...

and you can watch a narrowband O2 signal and know if it's going rich misfire... the excessive amount of unburned oxygen will show up as lean, and the PCM will try and richen the mixture further.

[Rootie524]

Ok...it's very possible i am indeed running rich and i don't know how it could have happened. i was having my misfire problem that i've been having today and when my friend and i were driving around and we pulled up to a light he got next to me and said my car smelled funny. we pulled over and i sniffed the exhaust and it didnt smell like usual. it might have been unburned fuel, although the tail pipe and everything coming out was bone dry. I'll admit i don't know enough about diagnosing problems to know different smells yet, but it just seemed off.

also..when i pulled over idle was extremely loopy..it would settle at 900rpm the drop down to about 100-200 and before stalling it would spike back up and it kept doing it, like it was dying or something. also i noticed lately when i start my car (even when warm) it jumps to about 2k and takes a bit to come down. and when i rev it say to 4k..it comes down to about 1500rpm for a bit before going back down to regular idle at 800-900....this to me sounds like a TPS or something. but it may be connected with my fuel problem?!?!?!

either way..if im running rich, my plugs are soon to be gone im sure. i got my car dyno tuned but i didnt think he added much fuel just tuned it fro 93 octane and put electrical timing in it...wtf is going on.

i also noticed sometimes when my tank is fuller the problems occur less but still happen..which may be linked to dirt in gas tank clogging up the sock. at any rate im replacing the fuel filter tomorrow for good measure. i really want this fixed. i need this car to run well till i can put my built 3400 in.

[86FieroSEv6]

Okay, so, quick experiment here. When it is f*****g up, try a small shot of propane into the air intake and see if it improves...if so, it is lean. If it gets worse then it is rich. At least this will help us pick a direction with this remote troubleshoot.
Also, smell the oil when it is cold . . . does it smell "gassy"?

[Rootie524]

ok ill see if i can try that next time it's running like that. what's the best way to do that? they have a propane gas spray? haha

and for the good of the order let me add a few things:
-it seems to go in and out of running rough more so in drive at idle (like at a red light)..i can feel it jumping and stuff...now some of that may be that i have a stock stall converter with a cam...but still...
-When it's running rough sometimes if i gun it, it will go away at higher engine speeds..
-When it's running rough the check engine light blinks (i havent checked it recently but lately its been cyl 4 misfire
-I'm not 100% sure on this because i dont have the best compression tester but i just realized this yesterday. when i did my compression test a week ago every cyl was 160psi except for 4 which was like 180psi..it was sort of all over the place. so idk what's up there..might be a mistake that's too coincidental
-I changed my oil yesterday and when i did it was really thin. i did it when the engine was still pretty hot but it was like reallllly thin (it's standard 5w30 btw). then later i checked it in the container i put it in and it was still maybe only a step or two up from water thin. it was also black..no metal or debris though. i don't think there was coolant in there or anything..but idk at this point.

[robertisaar]

sounds like you had a lot of gas in the oil, which was likely caused by the cylinder 4 misfire.... or if your PCV system isn't working as it should.

[Rootie524]

ok so now the pieces of the puzzle might be coming together.

my car is pretty bad on gas (more than usual), it misfires cyl 4, cyl 4 had random cyl pressure, i changed my oil yesterday, it was thin as hell, and yesterday with my new oil is when it smelled a lot different and my buddy told me it smelt funny.

my PCV valve is somewhat new..maybe get a new one? and what else in that system could go wrong? damn.

so my cyl 4 misfire caused the gas in oil..or the gas in oil causes the misfire?

[robertisaar]

gas in oil should not cause a misfire(and on a specific cylinder at that)... more likely that the gas was getting dumped into the oil during a misfire.

[Rootie524]

damn that sucks do now i still need to find the source of the misfire...

[86FieroSEv6]

You know what else? If cylinder 4 is sucking oil that could account for the strangely high compression value. I assure you that if you put a teaspoon of oil in the other cylinders, they too would have read "high". If the oil intrusion is great enough, you might not get the tell tale smoke at the tailpipe. Also, excessive oiling of the converter will make it smell like hell once it's lit off in closed loop. This might be due to a bad intake valve stem seal in light of your compression readings. A lower reading would have me thinking a relaxed or broken piston ring.