Well this is the first time the twins and the utec have faced 9-10 degrees in the morning.The problem started after getting half way to work when i notice a lot of smoke coming out of the exhaust and my aem a/f guage was sweeping back and forth between bad lean and pig rich..It wasnt white smoke and the car ran fine.
I get to work and ran a test to see if there were any combustion gases present in the antifreeze and none was found.The smell of the exhaust wasnt sweet like with a blown headgasket nor was it a high gas fume smell and oil burning is out of the question.
On the way home the a/f guage will not move from about 14.0-to about 15.3 no matter what you do with the gas pedal but the smoking is not near as bad.The engine is not overheating and it continues to run perfect and i am not getting on it at all.

Any suggestions before i tow it to dave at functiontuned over a 100 miles away.

Thanks,Keith.

 

I would check the accuracy of the wideband first. I am not sure what year your car is, but i think it was after of 04 the z and g's come w/ stock wideband o2 sensors. I would take it to a dealership and have them hook up the consult 2 to it to see what the stock wbo2 sensors are reading. Also you might want to do a free air calibration on your o2 sensor or just replace it all together.

 

It is kinda wierd as the car ran perfect on sunday when it was still **** cold.Btw its a early 2003.

 

OK so that means you do not have stock wb02 sensors.

BTW, did the car seem to run fine besides the smoking (ie vaccum readings and temps were ok?)

 

The car runs perfect and the vac readings are spot on and temps are perfect.Oh and no stock wb o2 sensors just the one with the aem.......damn i wish this was a old school motor as they were easy to diagnose.

 

i would really try recalibrating or replacing your wideband sensor before towing the car 100 miles away. Deff sounds like wb02 sensor to a dump to me

 

Any change while driving? For example if it changed as it got warmer? How was the cold start first turn? Failing Utecs from what I've heard don't typically do that. Although I also saw a G today that drove in, then would start (to the point motor assistance was called) and then 10 mins later started up and ran completely fine. Just plain odd.

 

We're not running AEM (Innovate and UTEC) but we live in South Texas (and have constantly fluctuating temperatures) and every time there is a temperature change greater than 20-30 degrees the Wideband will act exactly like yours has been. A simple re-calibrate fixes things until the weather changes back.

 

Did Dave set-up the temp compensation feature on the UTEC? Maybe it needs fine adjustment? I dont run that feature because it never worked well on my car. Colder temps would obviously mean leaner A/F's but I richen mine up with a turn of the base fuel pressure up on the RFS, I dont think you have one. Stay out of boost until you get it figured out Keith.

 

+1 stay out off boost try to re-cal your o2 also.

 

Don't forget that to re-cal the Innovate you can do it on the highway, get up to about 60-70 and then leave in gear and take foot off of throttle, when the O2 gauge says 'O2', hit the button on the gauge 3 times in quick succession ... and then just wait a few seconds until the gauge starts to read correctly again ...

 

you can do this with the xd-16 guage?

 

i had my utec and ecu fired a week or two ago. my afr at ideal were 19-22, so your case isnt as bad. but when i got on it it wouldnt go richer than 14, even when in boost. after realized this i drove it a block back to the shop and then paid over $200 for a tow to Dave at function. sounds kinda like what i went throught but my case had a bad ecu to, so it hard to say what caused what. I noticed that the car was falling on its face and had NO power and idealed extremly rough. so if its running strong it might just be the innovate wideband(i have one, but it was reading fine) and it might just need to recalibrated like every one said.

 

yes, it's kinda in the manual and a past post from Gurgen ...

https://my350z.com/forum/showpost.ph...91&postcount=3

 

We figuerd it out...the original cat convertors burnt up and caused all the smoke and they also fried my wideband o2 sensor.I have experienced all kinds of problems in my 30 years in this business but have never seen or smelled a cat convertor burn up like these did.
So now im gonna get a new wideband sensor and 2 new post o2 sensors just to be sure and replace them........see you next week for the higher boost tune dave.

 

glad it's not too bad!
i was thinking bad 02 sensor...and they can go kinda bonkers sometime.

 

Also i have a aem wideband but i know now it was the cats just burnt out cause of the high heat from the turbos.I really didnt realize that the stock cats could not handle the extreme heat of the turbos............but i do now.

 

LOL you run cats? Dont be a puss Keith! Glad you figured it out. Time for some nice 3" downpipes!

 

+1. Do it Keith......Do it.

 

The cats likely run much hotter than your turbos. Cats burning up is a symptom of running rich, and not so much being subjected to heat from a turbo per se. Of course, when you have a turbo, you run a little richer than you usually would. Metal cores survive FI better (if you decide to pursue cats)...

EDIT: I don't know anything about your build, but if you take the cats out, you may want to examine the tune (AFR).