Black soot on 'plugs

[Stevo-M 0]

Hi folks, i had a tinker with the Corrado earlier and discovered a few things, one of which is black sooty deposits on the buisness end of the spark plugs. I knew there was a problem with the engine timing or the air/fuel mixture, as it starts and drives but when you put the foot down it splutters a wee bit then goes, also theres blue smoke from the exhaust. Is there any common faults i should check first on the 2.0 16v engine? It does have 161k miles on it!

cheers 8)

[Riley 0]

More than likely one of two things or a combination of both...

 

Tired valve stem seals in the cylinder head, and/or tired piston rings/oil scraper rings.

 

If you pop to a half decent local garage, and ask for a compression test and a leak down test they should be able to tell you the reason why you are burning oil.

 

Neil.

[Stevo-M 0]

Cool, cheers mate. I'll get it checked at the weekend 8)

[davidwort 0]

when does it blow smoke most?

if the stem seals or inlet valve guides are worn then it'll tend to suck down most oil into the combustion chamber when coming off the gas, as manifold vacuum is highest then.

Are all plugs the same?

[Stevo-M 0]

To be honest i only checked one plug, there was a bitter cold wind blowing up my back :oops:.

I can only see the blue smoke when i get out and look at the tailpipe when the cars idling, or if i stand outside the car and give it a rev, it's not big massive clouds that can be seen in the mirrors. It's also got a petrol'y smell when standing at the back of the car, and doesn't seem quite as bad once the engines heated up.

[Supercharged 2]

Black soot just means it's running very rich - when was it last setup / tuned?

[Stevo-M 0]

... when was it last setup / tuned?

Probably about 1992 :lol: I only got the car last week so i've got no idea of the history of it, unfortunatly :(