Ive had a lot of people tell me that when im stepping on the gas with my h23 that there is a lot of black smoke coming out of my tailpipe. also i am getting around 16-22 mpgs on my car so im assuming im running rich.
first off - what leads a car to run rich?
It is a swaped engine- im running the h23 in my GSR

Ive heard to check -

O2 sensors - how does one really check the o2 sensors???


What else can i check/change/look for in order to find out why my car is running rich??
I searched for this but i went through 10 posts and all of them had turbo'ed cars and what not, and .. i dont think i need to advance my timing .. but who knows..
anyone have any ideas??

Ive looked at my plugs and they are black/sooty - smell like gas - and also sometimes my car wont start right after i shut it off - most likely because its flooding...
any ideas??
thanks =-)

 

do u have the right injectors in there? is the FPR pluged in correctly, does your cars diagnostic system still function? you could try to check for a code...02's are preety hard to check with basic hand tools so other than letting a shop do it i dunno how u r gonna check it

 

There were a couple of things i did when my h22 (NA) was running rich but ultimately my particular solution was that i needed a tune up :
i cleaned my EGR valve, replaced spark plugs, and adjust my timing back to stock which is 15 i believe.)

my understanding about engines running rich is that the ecu is dumping more fuel than usual to lower the temp in the combustion camber. Reasons for high temperature in the combustion camber include wrong octane, lack of inert gasses (EGR system), wrong or bad spark plugs, or possibly irregular injector flow.

about your O2 question,

maybe take a paperclip and jump the ecu to see if you get any codes

 

the prelude ecu is tuned rich from the factory...

 

Yes, but from what he is saying it sounds too rich to me.