ystrdyisgone Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Hey folks, haven't been on here in a while cause everything with the car has been great! But an issue has popped up recently that I can't figure out. So from the top, here's what's going on: A couple weeks ago, I noticed that I had whitish/blueish smoke coming out of the exhaust when the engine was cold. It would also appear under hard acceleration. The smoke isn't milky like coolant, but more like rich fuel, or maybe oil? My idle has been weird as well, it usually idles at 1500, and after an hour or so of driving, it would go up to 2-2.5K and fluctuate a few hundred rpm at idle. The other day I was really getting on it and shifting at about 4500, and something happened. When I arrived at my destination, the idle went down to about 900, and it stayed there, idling just like it should. But it seemed a bit rough. I noticed some knocking? when it first entered into this normal idle stage. I drove 8 miles home, and the engine seemed very hesitant, like all the power was gone. A few hours after I was home I went to go leave and it wouldn't start. I thought perhaps it was flooded. So I let it sit, and charged the battery. After charging the battery and cranking many many times, it finally started with some coaxing of the gas pedal, but it runs so rough. Seems like it's missing on one cylinder. A huge cloud of smoke came out when it first fired up. And now if I start it, there is a constant amount of smoke in the exhaust, nothing like the cloud before though. I popped the spark plugs out and cyl #1 was pretty fouled, all black and a bit of gunk was on the tip of the threads, also reeked like fuel. Replaced those and fired it up to see if there was any change, there wasn't. The wires are pretty old I think, may be the original stock wires. I'll try those next, but I have a feeling it's something else, like fuel related, or pcv, or ??? I'm kind of at a loss here and thought I'd reach out for some ideas from the wise folks on the board. Thanks ahead of time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legacy777 Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 With the amount of smoke that it sounds like came out, I'd recommend doing a compression test to get a pulse on how the engine's health is doing. Depending on what you find, that may help you determine what is the problem. When you did the swap, did you hook up the check engine light? If so, have you tried to see if any codes are stored in the ECU? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ystrdyisgone Posted September 7, 2014 Author Share Posted September 7, 2014 Alright, compression test on the list. Thanks for the suggestion. I actually haven't hooked up the CEL yet. When I first got it running I was checking the led codes from the ecu itself, I originally had a knock sensor code, and an iacv code. The knock sensor I replaced, and the other code disappeared. I looked at the ecu led last week and it was blinking in very erratic patterns, like I couldn't distinguish anything from what it was showing me. Shoulda taken a video of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legacy777 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 You may want to check out the LED again to see what it's doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ystrdyisgone Posted September 9, 2014 Author Share Posted September 9, 2014 I started the car for a few minutes yesterday to do just that, and there wasn't a single blink from the LED Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooner Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Hey Mitch i had a similar problem with my first swap and it turned out one of my fuel injectors was clogged. I replaced it and fixed all of the problems. You might want to try cleaning that IAC as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ystrdyisgone Posted September 11, 2014 Author Share Posted September 11, 2014 Thanks Levi, I was suspecting the injectors as well, I'll be digging into it this weekend hopefully. I'll look into the IAC too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooner Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Funny thing, ran a can of BG44K through it one day and about a week later that car ran even worse! Haha took awhile to find that clogged injector as i was new to the EJ22. I could actually see bits of gunk sticking out of the spray holes. Be careful when you go to put them back in as well as the O rings will probably need to be replaced. If not they literally pour gas into the cylinder and cause much stress and anxiety. Are they black top or red top injectors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ystrdyisgone Posted September 12, 2014 Author Share Posted September 12, 2014 (edited) Black top injectors. Do I have to stick with the black top injectors or can I use red if I have some available at the J/Y? Edit: just read through this thread http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/113733-different-injectors-does-it-matter/page-2, will probably just go the red top route. Edited September 12, 2014 by ystrdyisgone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ystrdyisgone Posted September 16, 2014 Author Share Posted September 16, 2014 Well I swapped in some grey top injectors from a 90 leggy AT, no change, I also swapped the coil pack, just for kicks. No change there either. I went down to the local shop and asked one of the guys there what he thought, and with the circumstances I described he said I should check out the timing. Looks to me like it's off but I've got to double-check to make sure I know what I'm lookin at here(timing marks, etc..) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooner Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 I thought you replaced the timing belt and all of the components when you did the swap? I might be mistaken though. Good news is that motor is super easy to get the timing back to where it should be and it's non interference in case it is off. If it is off see if the belt has a broken tooth or two. Make sure the crank and cam pulleys aren't damaged either so the new belt doesn't get hurt when you put it on! You might want to think about doing a new water pump while you're in there, their not that expensive either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ystrdyisgone Posted September 16, 2014 Author Share Posted September 16, 2014 (edited) I was going to, but upon seeing the timing belt being almost new, I decided to skip that step. It was off by about two teeth, I wanna say the DS cam skipped? But I didn't look that close, just wanted to get it redone. The pulleys look great, and the belt still looked great. I thought about doing the WP and the OP too, but not really wanting to dig in that far today. So I got it all back together, it runs great. Only problem is that there's now constant smoke coming out of the exhaust. Oh and the crazy light show is back on the ecu LED. Vids below: Edited September 16, 2014 by ystrdyisgone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ystrdyisgone Posted September 17, 2014 Author Share Posted September 17, 2014 (edited) Oh, I'll also add, I swapped my old injectors back in after there was no change in the running of the engine. Then did the timing belt. So it occurred to me I should maybe try to swap the injectors one more time. Or take it for a spirited drive and see if she recovers from driving it with the timing off? ha.. I suppose I'll do the compression check tomorrow just to be thorough? Edited September 17, 2014 by ystrdyisgone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooner Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 Hey Mitch, i'd definitely take a minute to look at the timing belt tensioners. There is a reason the belt skipped bro, i would suspect one of those. Something caused the belt to move and it could happen again. Maybe the smoke is just from some deposits burning off? I couldn't see your videos from looking at the site on my phone, no videos on here ever show up for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ystrdyisgone Posted September 17, 2014 Author Share Posted September 17, 2014 Yeah that's a good call. The tensioner could be on its way out. Also the flat face on the head of the tensioner was facing the wrong way. Not sure if that would cause any issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloyale Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 Yeah that's a good call. The tensioner could be on its way out. Also the flat face on the head of the tensioner was facing the wrong way. Not sure if that would cause any issues. Yes that can cause issues. Probably why it skipped. So you are saying you swapped Grey and Black injectors around? in the same fuel rail? I would not think that could work........the lower seat is different I though.....perhaps that was your constant smoke? leaking fuel around the lower seat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ystrdyisgone Posted September 19, 2014 Author Share Posted September 19, 2014 (edited) No, I pulled the whole rail off a legacy with an automatic, and swapped the whole setup in. It didn't change anything though so I switched back to the stock rail I had on before. I suppose it's worth taking the rails back off and actually pulling the injectors to see if the o-rings are worn. The smoke has subsided for the most part. Shows up when driving it before it's warmed up. Not as thick as before. I was also thinking she might be in need of a valve job, perhaps some oil is getting into the mix in the combustion chamber? Only other big issue I have still is the lofting RPMS. Now that the timing belt is back in place, it idles at 1500 again, and sometimes lofts to 2000+ at stoplights. Also, sometimes when I start it the idle shoots up to 3000 and stays there for a while. Not particularly cold out either, so not sure what the deal is. I sure am glad I got this engine for next to nothing... ha One final symptom is that whenever I go to fill up my tank, there is an immense amount of pressure in the fuel tank when I take the cap off. Related? Edited September 20, 2014 by ystrdyisgone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
machthree2 Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Hey There... Mr Scooner and I had this problem. I had a fuel pressure issue which ended up being the regulator. The red VS the grey injectors have different O rings on the bottom so probably best to keep the original ones due to rail differences. I would get a rail with the regulator on it and replace the whole rail to troubleshoot. I was having major idle issues especially when cold and eventually had big smoke blue white troubleshooting. Mr Scooner let me swap in a new ECU and that fixed the smoke and most of the running issues. The blue smoke happened after I messed up the ECU pulling plugs and and injectors to troubleshoot. After the blue smoke, and back to the original problem ("rich when cold and hard to start when hot") I did replace the fuel regulator and injectors for "Rich" flooding. This ended up being the two temperature sensors feeding the ECU, and a half working fuel regulator. BY the way, I didn't have the temp gauge working or hooked up>>>> So the net of it: Bad regulator and leaky injector where causing fuel dumping in but primarily I had a temperature reading problem, and no idea of engine temp. I would say you have a some fuel issues due to regulator (don't buy cheap ones from ebay) and or temp/ecu issue. Usually there will a difference when cold and warmed up in the way she runs. I now have a EJ OBD2 swap and have all the codes after that session HAHA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ystrdyisgone Posted October 31, 2014 Author Share Posted October 31, 2014 I definitely thought it was a fuel issue too, but I replaced the coolant temp sensor and the iacv. I think the temp sensor did it. I read somewhere that if that sensor is malfunctioning, it will cause starting issues, as well as idle issues due to the ecu thinking the car is still cold. This would produce a richer fuel mixture, which would explain many of my symptoms. Since those two things were replaced it has been problem free! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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