Hey guys, I haven't been here in awhile, good to see the board still exists..

I tried searching, but a lot of the situations don't seem to apply to mine..

I have a 2000 ITR, mobil 1 every 3000 miles, 49k on the car, completley stock.

So I got my car out of 3 months storage, (i changed the oil before i put it in), and I've probably only put about 1000 miles on the car. Today i was cleaning my garage and noticed that there was black soot all over my wall. (i back the car in). I took a look at the rear, and there was soot all over the bumper and wing. So heres what I'm confused about.

The motor burns maybe a half a can every 3000 miles. I've never had soot before. It is throwing no codes, and the idle seems fine. There are also no mods on it (I saw that most of the people who had soot on the rear had some form of mods on the car).

I haven't hit VTEC much, since I don't make long trips to work. Probably less than a mile. (I usually ride my bike, its just too cold right now..) But I did hit it last night and it pulled fine. The weather has gone up and down I guess, but I don't think it should affect the car this much...

So I don't think its oil burning, but my guess is that it is running a bit rich. From the search, it seems that this happens to a lot of people... But what I don't get is that it never happened before to my ITR and now it is.

So the question is should I get a tune up? It only has 49k on it and I don't really drive it that hard, so I don't think that a tune up should be an issue. Or.. would resetting the ECU help? I understood that the ecu should reset it self, for sure after at least 1000 miles...

 

i talked to an acura service rep, and he said that because i'm not making long enough trips for the engine to completley warm up and the fact that the car was in storage for a bit, he thinks the rings might not be sealing completley and i might be burning some oil...

Thoughts on this? I'm going to go take it out and drive it around, we'll see what happens....

 

Sounds right to me.

 

if the engine never gets up to operating temp i would say you need to drive a crappier car to and from work............ its really bad on an engine to run too cold over and over again without warming up

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by cjames235 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if the engine never gets up to operating temp i would say you need to drive a crappier car to and from work............ its really bad on an engine to run too cold over and over again without warming up</TD></TR></TABLE>

I know this, i don't usually do it but for now i don't have much of a choice. i didn't think that doing it only a couple of times would affect the car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 01usjdmr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds right to me.</TD></TR></TABLE>

so if i put some highway miles on it and plenty of them, will the rings start sealing correctly?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dk127 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

so if i put some highway miles on it and plenty of them, will the rings start sealing correctly?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Short answer, no. If there has been damage, it's already been done. I would start, if in that direction, with a leak down and compression test. That would determine if in fact it's the rings. Could be a wore out cat too. My first guess though, would be it's running rich if your only putting in .5 qt every oil change.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Dave_B &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Short answer, no. If there has been damage, it's already been done. I would start, if in that direction, with a leak down and compression test. That would determine if in fact it's the rings. Could be a wore out cat too. My first guess though, would be it's running rich if your only putting in .5 qt every oil change.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't see how the rings could be damaged if all the car did was sit there while in storage.. And, I don't see why the car would be running rich...

But I did notice some smoke in the rear view when I started driving and gave it some gas. After the engine warmed up, i hit vtec and i saw some smoke. But i drove for a bit more and hit vtec again, and then i didn't see any more smoke the rest of the time i drove it. I parked and went into best buy for 10 min, came out, the car didn't completley cool down but was still warm, and about 3 min later the temp gauge was where it should be and took it to redline, with a bit of smoke. at the next light, i did it again and there was no smoke. I drove the car home and parked it in the garage, put a box behind the exhaust, and reved it a couple of times, and there was nothing on the box.

It seems that after i drive the car a bit, when its warmed up, its not spitting anything out. So if it was running rich, after driving it, is the ecu adjusting?

so everytime i start it up the ecu runs it rich until its fully warm? i'm just confused because this never happened before...

thanks for the replies... keep em comin

 

i think its rich, seeing that you never let it warm up all that extra gas that is added from warm up is the culpret.... p.s my friend with a bone stock r with 30k gives a nice poof of blk smoke at wot. i think its normal..

 

i dont know if its normal but my R does the same thing soot all over the bumper and spoiler but i was told by my acura service rep that they all do it.

 

Im with ^^. Im running a test pipe on my R and I get that stuff all over my bumper, but never on my spoiler.

 

Wether its normal or not, my R is relatively stock too(AEM Intake). Ive never actually notcied smoke coming out, but then again I cant see my own ***. I too have black crap all over the bumper...hell some has drifted up to the underside of the spoiler. It runs perfect though but Im gonna do a comp test still to make sure.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sfedai0 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Wether its normal or not, my R is relatively stock too(AEM Intake). Ive never actually notcied smoke coming out, but then again I cant see my own ***. I too have black crap all over the bumper...hell some has drifted up to the underside of the spoiler. It runs perfect though but Im gonna do a comp test still to make sure.</TD></TR></TABLE>

When it starts to get bad you will notice it. In my experience it first happens in the vtec range, then it will become a smokescreen in vtec, then you will see a little poof just driving normally from a stoplight. This was between 80-130K miles though, so don't be too worried. I'm planning very soon to either re-ring the current pistons or replace them if the ring-lands are bad.

 

I, too, have recently developed a similar problem. Car has 117k and engine is/has been bone stock w/5W-30 Mobil1. I advanced timing to 22-23 about a year ago and that caused visible black smoke in the mirror along with an odor that I thought was a 'rich' condition during WOT. This problem cleaned itself up after several WOT blasts. Car is NBP, but I had never seen any soot on rear bumper during the 4 yrs I've had it.

Bout a month ago, started getting the same odor and grayish-black cloud during every WOT. Also started getting soot build up on bumper, hatch rear face etc. Also consuming gobs of oil - used to use 1 qt / 3000 mi, now around 1 qt / 1000 mi... Getting no smoke during idle, normal driving and measured consumption during normal driving (with no WOT operation) is 1 qt / 3000 mi, so the problem is definitely during WOT = oil rings (engine still runs perfectly and strong).

Will be changing timing to 18 and resetting ECM today - see what happens... Hopefully it's just fuel wetting walls and I don't need new rings...

 

Now that you mentioned you had smoke at WOT, check if you get a little puff on start up. That would tell me it's valve seals.

 

Judging by your oil consumption, I would say its normal.

 

Just got my stretch-guage in today. Thats the last thing I need to replace my pistons/ rings.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ed 341 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just got my stretch-guage in today. Thats the last thing I need to replace my pistons/ rings. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Party at Ed's house!!!

 

 

I was thinking maybe condensation, since most of the time it never fully warms up, but the smoke kinda negates that. Maybe the smoke is normal, and the soot only happens during short trips.....?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nafreak &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I was thinking maybe condensation, since most of the time it never fully warms up, but the smoke kinda negates that. Maybe the smoke is normal, and the soot only happens during short trips.....?</TD></TR></TABLE>

once the car is warmed up its fine i think. i just did a compression test...

228 225 218 218

I took a pic of my plugs, but i don't have anything to upload them to right now... they look fine to me..

so the compression is fine though right? i did it with the engine cold.

edit: and i just realized i didn't put any anti-seize on the plugs before i put them back in.. is that gonna be a problem...

 

compression tests are supposed to be done with the motor warmed up and with the throttle wide open.......

 

i did it with throttle wide open.. but even if the rings didn't fully expand (the warm up), since all results were within 10 psi that should be fine right? if they are all within 10 psi when the engine is cold, i'd assume when its warmed up that the results would be more within each other.

edit: ok i'll go back and do it warm, is it ok if i don't put any anti-seize on the plugs? it doesn't say to in the owners manual....


Modified by dk127 at 6:02 PM 4/19/2007

 

Anti-seize isnt mandatory, BUT it should be. With our soft aluminum heads it is always a good idea. So when you pull them out again to do the test when it is warm I would suggest puttin lil on the threads, and post up what your new "warm" numbers are as well....