Hey, i tried asking this on another forum and didnt get too many replies. Hopefully somebody here can help solve my problem. I have a 93 si with a 97 sh swap. Recently I have been blowing out black smoke at wide open throttle. Also my bumper turned black from the smoke. Its like a dry powdery film. My question is, where should I start? A little history on the car...I've been getting a cel for the egr valve every few months. I clean it and the cel goes away but seems to come back after a while. I'm thinking this has something to do with the problem because the egr clogs with the same black stuff thats on my bumper. Also my plugs look ok, they are a little on the white side but show no sign of black. Just did a compression test and they ranged from 190-210 so the compression is good. Any help would be great. I know preludes run a little rich but not like this. Ive had the car for 8 years and never had build up like this.

 

How long has it been swapped? How many miles are on the SH engine? Why did you use an SH for the swap? Have you checked your A/F ratio?

 

been swapped since i bought the car. has about 75k on it now. I didnt check the air/fuel ratio. What do I need to do that?

 

what ecu are you using? if it's just the stock p5m or p5p from a '97, the black soot is very common; i have a '97 SH and it's pretty bad. sounds like you need to clean the egr ports on the intake manifold if you keep throwing the egr code. a new o2 might help your a/f a little, but a tune is the only way you'll be able to really get rid of it.

 

Are you burning oil or do you think the car is just running rich?

 

Im having the same problem with my 97 SH with regards to carbon buildup on the bumper. I am also noticing black smoke when I rev the engine. Can you get a tune from a stock ecu? I called a shop in my area and they said that I need an aftermarket engine management such as "chrome" to get a dynotune.

Any suggestions?

 

97s have an obd2 ecu. you'll need an obd1 to have it tuned. as far as i know..

 

Since you have an SH, your most economical option is to get a VAFC.

 

Im running a p13 ecu a chip. i'm going to order a new o2 sensor this weekend to see if that helps at all.

 

i think its running rich, not burning oil

 

You probably need to drill out the whole EGR system in your intake to really clean it out. Other than that, just get used to washing your bumper regularly. It's part of H22 life

 

My 4th gen has been running really crap ever since I started modifying it (intake and exhaust). Got a air fuel controller (field then gizzmo) to help sort out the fuel mixture but it never really made much of an impact. The dizzy bearing was packing up too so I recently replaced it with an OEM low km one. Between the dizzy swap and the re-setting of my ignition timing the car stopped running rich all together!

Now I don’t think this is applicable on the 5th gens (don’t know it you can alter the ignition timing) but I’m pretty sure my Lude's timing was out by at least 10 degrees. The gizzmo controller gives me exact rpm and I used it while setting my ignition timing (700rpm). I first checked what my timing was before I swapped out the dizzy, the red mark was hardly visible through the timing/flywheel hole let alone the little scope marker thing that the red marker is suppose to be in (if that makes any sense lol). After swapping out the dizzy and setting the timing so that the red pointer on the flywheel is at the right location (15'BTDC), I took the car for a spin. I have never, in the 45'000miles of driving this Lude, felt it pick up that well and VTEC actually had a solid kick to it right to 7.4k. So for some unknown reason my ECU likes to retard the ignition timing as much as it can. Car runs crap then, fuel economy is gone and so is power.

So maybe ignition timing is a big reason for the carbon build up, spark occurs too late and not all the fuel gets a chance to burn?

 

like i said in the first post, ive had the car for 8 years and never had to clean the bumper or saw any sign of carbon on it. its not "normal"

 

thanks for the input, ill look into that next. where can i find more info on this gizzmo timer? is it the same thing as the vafc?

 

Yes it is a little simpler than the VAFC but gives more fuel control than the Field SFC, so it’s kind of the middle man. Here is a link to some info on it:

http://gizzmousa.com/gizzmo-CamFC.html

It’s a small unit but looks the part and I'm happy with the way it works. Gives an rpm reading in thousandths of a RPM (eg 2310rpm). So really good for setting idle speed ect.

 

for VAFC info, read Apexi's website.