Hey fellas..

As most of you know I roll with the UTEC and Wideband.. I am having an issue with my exhaust and I am trying to narrow it down.. The wideband is telling me I am 14.5ish rollin around town and WOT is about 12.6(average) @WOT..

My exhaust tips are BLACK.. I touch it and I get black $hit on my finger, not heavily, but it is there..

Am I somehow runnin richer than what the Wideband is tellin me or??? I am kinda stumped right now... Anyone elses tips pretty black and sooty??

Thanks for the replies peeps..

 

mine r black too, i clean them every 2-3 months.

 

2-3 months? Wow...if I let them go that long they'd be stained.

Since the day I picked up my car I get the black stuff pouring/oozing out of the pipes after a good drive. I clean the tips after every drive, otherwise it would be horrendous (in my case).

Ken I wouldn't worry too much about it. But I am surprised this is the first time you've seen it.

PS, with my cams etc, before tuning, I run 14.x just driving around town , like you. And I still get the coating. I thought it was odd too because we all assume it is fuel related, right? I think that our exhaust systems form puddles because of they way the bends are shaped and designed. And I think that regardless of your mixture, you will pool condensation. And that condensation ultimately gets darker because of where it is.

So when it comes out, it looks nasty.

That's my theory, anyway. Because if it is fuel then somehow all of our cars are managing to get fuel past the Cats at 14.x WB O2 readings, regardless of run time or driving style.

But, if you need the peace of mind for sleepin, I'd just switch to Map 0 and head to the dealer. They will be able to better explain the cause (normal or not).

 

This is typical for most any vehicles if you run them at WOT a couple times here and there. As long as the tips are black/soot like I would not worry, if they are blue/oily than you might want to keep an eye on your oil level.

Hope this helps,

 

Black is normal. Exhaust is dirty guys. LOL

 

in the old days, we used to run leaded racing fuel in our motorcycles and tune by looking at the color of the exhaust tips. we also could pull our plugs and tell how we were running based on color as well.

nowa days, unleaded fuel has changed everything and the exhaust is always going to be black.

would it not be better to pull the plugs...even then it is harder with unleaded but you can tell if your lean or not. probably not worth the time really....just use the utec.