318 mystery problem, somewhat solved!

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that just looks like steam, it is evaporating as it comes out. it does seem a bit excessive though. hopefully you dont have any white in your oil.
 
I haven't seen any. I pulled the dipstick after running it and nothing but I don't know if I have to pull the pan to check. That and the fluid level in the radiator doesn't go down a whole lot. Great thanks, some good news there hopefully haha
 
If that's actually all oil smoke, your O2 sensor will have fits! Has the engine always used oil? How much (miles per quart)? Is the sensor a 1-wire or 3-wiare (heated). Where is it mounted in the exhaust system? You could be running so rich that you are having oil dilution from the cylinder walls. But any engine running that rich probably wont want to idle smooth.

If your MSD is "buzzing" something sounds wrong. You probably should go over the changes you just made right before this began happening. I hate to say it, but it sounds like you may have made something worse. The MSD box will stop buzzing when it fries internally. Not sure how long that will take, but it can't be good to keep running it like that.
 
C130 Chief said:
If that's actually all oil smoke, your O2 sensor will have fits! Has the engine always used oil? How much (miles per quart)? Is the sensor a 1-wire or 3-wiare (heated). Where is it mounted in the exhaust system? You could be running so rich that you are having oil dilution from the cylinder walls. But any engine running that rich probably wont want to idle smooth.

If your MSD is "buzzing" something sounds wrong. You probably should go over the changes you just made right before this began happening. I hate to say it, but it sounds like you may have made something worse. The MSD box will stop buzzing when it fries internally. Not sure how long that will take, but it can't be good to keep running it like that.
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i dont know squat about the EFI, but i do know that if the MSD is "buzzing" it is not a happy camper and is receiving/sending a bad signal or a bad ground and no signal and i wouldnt run it like that either. the smoke didnt appear to be oil, but did look a little blue. from the video , it appeared to be evaporating, which is why i assumed it is condensation. if it doesnt go away after it is warmed up, i would be concerned. the first video looked as though it was rich, but looks worse now.
 
Gahh not good news then in that sense. Hopefully it didn't fry but I'll see. It only happens when the engine dies and I shut it down right away.

No the engine doesn't use oil at all which is the weird part. I may crawl under the thing and see if I can get the O2 sensor out and see if it's all crapped up possibly, though I don't want to do that as the cars on dirt and I have no stands, jack or crawler haha
 
Ok so I got out there, looked back through all the connections and found one that is the ground for dist. that's hooked up to the negative for the power of the 6A that was sketchy, got it solid and tested it and nothing so I'm good now I think, didn't fry anything as far as I can tell but I still have to go back and fix that one wire properly.

It's now idling at 800 RPM at 14:1 a/f pretty nicely, still some eratic rpm drops (only like 10 or so) in there but there short and I'm pretty sure a few are normal. I'm going to let it run at 14:1 for a day or so and let it learn to run like that before I make any more changes on the idle a/f as if I've figured out if you change it too much quickly it'll go crazy.

I'm going to play with the cruise a/f and timing later today to see how that goes, hopefully well.
 
7dswinger said:
Ok so I got out there, looked back through all the connections and found one that is the ground for dist. that's hooked up to the negative for the power of the 6A that was sketchy, got it solid and tested it and nothing so I'm good now I think, didn't fry anything as far as I can tell but I still have to go back and fix that one wire properly.
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thats good news. i would take care of any sketchy wiring asap. i would also just go through and check every ground to be on the safe side.
 
Yup I did last night with a meter, continuity checked everything but I'm going back through as I think I missed a few.
Bogs down when you hit the pedal, think I need to adjust the "pump shot" to less as it's choking.

Exhaust is coming out clear, no smoke now so I think it has to do with outside temps as well as engine as it was cool at that time yesterday when I took the movie.
 
Just curiousity-how much slack is in your timing chain? I've had a bunch of 318's over the years and they will do some wierd stuff when the chain gets sloppy...
 
^good question. I just had it replace maybe 80 miles ago. Got rid of the plastic gear and everything.
 
Are you running headers or manifolds? The reason I ask is the O2 sensor needs to get pretty hot to work properly. If it's a single wire and it's mounted very far away from the ports it may not get hot enough (600F to work).
 
I'm running manifolds and it's a 3 wire and it's heated internally as well. What's nice is that the ez efi system lets me know when it's heated up and working.
I found a forum run by cpg nation that FAST uses for their products and I posted on there so I'll see what their techs say about it and post it here.
 
Best of luck. Hopefully some there can help. Maybe there's a local member who can actually look at your car. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but actually being able to see and touch the silly thing is priceless!
 
^So true, thanks for all the help.

I've gotten some where with it now, but at 14:1 at 800 RPM the IAC is open at 30 to 40%, should be around 20 at idle when warmed up. There's a screw on the throttle body that you can adjust that works with IAC so maybe I'll pay with that.
 
The mechanical stop screw for the throttle plates will affect the IAC open %. If you open the throttle plates, the IAC will close to compensate, maintaining your specified RPM. 20% at warm idle is a pretty good target, but as long as your cold start and warm up aren't sending the IAC open all the way, I wouldn't sweat it too much. You might be able to dial out a bit of the return-to-idle stumble and stall though. I don't know what that system does to the IAC once the throttles are opened. If the ECU drives the IAC closed once you are off idle, and opens it again as you return to idle, a more stall proof baseline throttle setting (more open) may help. If the IAC remains at it's previous position, it won't help much. It's as easy as turning a screw, so why not play with it. Just keep track of what you do if you need to put it back to where it was before.
 
Neither do I with IAC but I'll watch it. I believe that it does close the IAC and then reopen it at idle but I'll have to watch.

Got a few responses on my post at cpgnation. Apparently the system doesn't like dual plane manifolds, I've got a weiand action+plus on there (dual plane) but likes single planes better, helps out at idle big time. So either I need to try milling out the center divider or a spacer. Think I'll try a spacer first before I go about ripping the manifold off and milling it out. Doesn't make too much sense though but I'm not too knowledgeable with this stuff.
 
Ok so after taking care of some other issues here and there I'm back to trying to figure out the efi system. After talking to some people on a Fast forum I've learned two things that I need to check out

1) I need to try pulling in more timing. So I'm going to go raise the initial timing, currently at 15-16*.

2) My manifold may be screwing things up. Apparently the runners are sized for a 360 and I could be pulling oil in due to them being to large for a 318 so I need to stick a mirror down there and see what I can find or pull it off eventually.

I'll see what I can find
 
Quick check for internal vacuum leaks: One valve cover should have PCV valve, other should have a breather. With engine at idle, put your thumb over breather hole. You should feel vacuum build up. If the idle speed changes (carb) or the IAC % changes (EFI) you are leaking vacuum internally either through gasket at ports or massively worn valve guides.
 
Re-timed it. Some how when I put the timing tape on I did it wrong and I made a mark on the timing cover were TDC is as it appeared the balancer had slipped but if you used the mark on the timing cover the engine really likes that. Idles so nice now and runs much much better. Yet to see about mileage but I believe I can now tune the EFI better now that this is set correctly and so retarded in timing.
 
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