# Not enough air in the KA



## augimatic (Mar 23, 2004)

need a little help here guys.

My stock 240 is stuck in Tucson.

What I know is that it's not getting enough air into the motor and so it's running way RICH! At idle you can smell the fuel from the tail pipe. At low RPM it dies and then I can't get it started for a long time, I have to sit there and crank on it forever then it'll start but runs crapy for a while with black smoke coming out the rear.

I flushed the coolant, oil changed it and gave it new plugs.

I tried the starting fluid in the intake and carb cleaner in the air intake control valve and nothing.

Anyone have any ideas? Someone thinks thermostate cause I'm in Tucson the car maybe really hot but I don't see why that would cause it to run rich.

One think, I may be not be getting compression either but I'm not sure.


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## Neji (Jun 6, 2004)

check the rest of your ignition system, might be the ignition wires or distributor.


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## schebs240 (Apr 13, 2004)

How about the O2 sensor??

Black smoke means ur burnin too much oil

1 Inspect VALVE STEM SEAL Cracked or brittle valve stem seals allowing oil to enter combustion chamber. 

2 Inspect VALVE GUIDE Worn valve guides 

3 Inspect VALVE Burned, worn or sticking exhaust valve(s). 

4 Inspect PISTON RING SET Worn or broken piston rings. 

5 Inspect ENGINE CONTROL COMPUTER Incorrect operation information being delivered and sent from the eec. 

6 Inspect DISTRIBUTOR Worn, loose or incorrectly adjusted distributor. 

8 Inspect PISTON Worn or damaged piston. 

9 Inspect TIMING SPECIFICATION Incorrectly adjusted engine timing. 

10 Inspect ENGINE Worn or scored cylinder block


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## TheNose247 (Jun 19, 2004)

schebs240 said:


> How about the O2 sensor??
> 
> Black smoke means ur burnin too much oil
> 
> ...


schebs nailed it right on the head


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## augimatic (Mar 23, 2004)

with all that, should I just say to hell with it, drive around the way it is untill I do the engine swap? I'm about 2 months out of getting my SR20DET.


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## Kelso (Apr 29, 2003)

uhhhhh i really thought oil burning was blue smoke. its black if its running rich like he said. do you have another car you can drive around for 2 months?
if you do then just pull your motor out right now and wait for the sr to come in


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## Joel (Jun 11, 2003)

Black smoke is fuel.

It could also be that the car is getting too much air and the ecu is compensating with too much fuel.

First check the simple things like clean working AFM (MAF), clean and secured air filter, vacuum hoses all connected and intact, O2 sensor working, cat in working order, no leaks around throttle body, timing


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## schebs240 (Apr 13, 2004)

Blue smoke means ur head gasket is shot 9 out of 10 times..

autozone.com
repair
troubleshoot 
and go from there


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## kaptainkrollio (Jul 29, 2003)

i thought that head gasket is white smoke.


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## augimatic (Mar 23, 2004)

Joel said:


> Black smoke is fuel.
> 
> It could also be that the car is getting too much air and the ecu is compensating with too much fuel.
> 
> First check the simple things like clean working AFM (MAF), clean and secured air filter, vacuum hoses all connected and intact, O2 sensor working, cat in working order, no leaks around throttle body, timing


Well, I'm gonna do all this before I jump to any conclustions. I'll do it one at a time and play elimination.


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## azRPS13 (Jun 7, 2003)

kaptainkrollio said:


> i thought that head gasket is white smoke.


If its blue smoke then thats oil burn... White, sweet smelling smoke is radiator fluid...

And augimatic... also check to see if the MAFs is working properly.


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## KA24Tech (Feb 2, 2004)

I'll agree with Joel in his troubleshooting logic. For a quick test of the MAF just unplug it and if it idles more smoothly you have found the problem.

Troy


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## esyip (Dec 19, 2002)

white/blue smoke means burning oil and a POSSIBLE (one color or the other is not a definition of one thing) blown head gasket. 

black smoke is burning fuel. 

one question - why are you putting carb cleaner in your engine when your car isn't carbureted? it's EFI.


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## niznos (May 27, 2004)

The problom that you are describing can be a lot of things. You can always try to pull the trouble codes from the ECU before throwing parts at it. That can get real expensive.


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## schebs240 (Apr 13, 2004)

your right my bad..


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## augimatic (Mar 23, 2004)

well, after further ado, it's the distributor cap. Which I totally didn't think of. And, fuel filter. I'm not done yet, I may have a bad fuel pump too, but I don't think so cause it runs fine at higher RPM's


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