My classic has the SPI (single point Injection) controlled by the ecu. It had been running great, then I let it sit for a week or so, and now it is running extremely rich. Black exhaust, fuel smell, and it sounds like it now has a larger cam in it. In reading the manual there really is no way to adjust the fule mixture on this model, so I was wondering if I should just disconnect the battery and reset the ecu, or if there was some other things I might be missing? I've taken a quick look and haven't found any vacuum leaks or anything like that.

I thought it might need a vallve adjustment, but they wouldn't go out of adjustment by sitting .


Any thoughts/ suggestions welcome.

Nik

 

If you're seeing black smoke, smelling fuel, and the idle's gotten "lopey", could it be something as simple as one cylinder not firing well (or at all)?

I'd pull the plugs and see if they all look the same, or if one looks particularly gunked up.

You're right that valves shouldn't go out of adustment while sitting, but I have had valves get sticky while sitting. If you find one plug that's fouled, and you confirm that you're getting spark to it, you might try running some fuel system cleaner through the engine.

 

Doh!, that makes sense, I'll check that out tomorrow.

Thanks,

Nik

 

Check to see if the temp sensor is unplugged, it sounds like it's gone full rich as if it thinks it's extremely cold out........

Check to see if a mouse or a squirrel chewed some wires........

 

Well I got it running correctly again, thanks to the suggestions here. I used to be better at trouble shooting, but got it figured out anyway.

I checked the spark plugs, and they were all fouled the same, not any worse than any others, then the temp sensor, all looked fine. Then I started looking for something chewed (swear I looked many times before I even started this thread) and found that the vacuum hose going to the bottom of the ECU leading to the MAP sensor was chewed in half (I checked the ends yesterday to make sure they were connected, but didn't trace the whole thing). Plugged it back in, and now its running great!! Just got back from a test drive.

Thanks again for the suggestions,

Nik

 

GLAD to hear you are motoring in your classic again.

"Running Rich" is an oxymoron for classic mini owners since they can be money pits!

 

Glad you found the problem and it was something as easy as a vacuum hose - more times than not it is something very simple like this.........

 

I've read that the first thing you should check (which you did) is the vacuum lines. On an SPi car apparently that'll cause all sorts of trouble.