Everytime I smash out at WOT a big puff of black smoke comes out of my exhaust in-between my gearshifts. What does this mean and what could I do to fix that?
Could it be worn piston rings, etc?

Thanks ahead for the people taking the time to type up any inputs.

 

Running rich....what have you done to the car?

 

could be rings prolly just rich though. unless there is hella smoke.

 

Might have a look at your fuel pressure regulator. It may have started failing on you, causing it to run rich.

 

also if your running with no cat or a test pipe it might cause that also...i konow mine did that in my car when i had a test pipe in place of my cat....

 

Black smoke = running rich

White smoke = Burning coolant
-Bad, bad sign. Typically means blown head gasket or worse....broken coolant jacket. You would probably know if you had either of these because your engine would run fairly awful.

Blue smoke = Burning oil
-Generally worn valve guides, or piston rings

White "steam" = Vaporizing water in your exhaust
-Not a bad sign as long as this goes away after your car has been running for a while. Condensation naturally builds up in the exhaust piping, particularly if you only drive your car for short stints.


[Modified by mojoGSR92, 12:37 PM 3/16/2002]

 

its called normal operation- running rich at WOT is typical- since power is called for the ECU richens the mixture.

 

carbon buildup...