Whats up guys, on my way to Atlantic city, I slowed down to pay the toll. My friend in an RSX was right behind me. I gunned it out of the toll, and shifted at 9000 on 1st, 2nd, 3rd. My friend told me that he saw black smoke burst out of my tailpipes everytime I shifted. Could anyone venture a guess on what it is??? I figured it was the oil sticking to the side of the pan, but Im not sure....would love to hear everyones opinion.


Just for records, car is stock, just a PRM intake. 6600miles, 2003.

 

Have you noticed how our exhaust tips get really black and sooty? Well, the whole insides of the exhaust system is like this. The S runs rich, so we get a lot of black sooty carbon built up inside the exhaust. After you've run the car for a bit and heated the system up, then you "give 'er", you blow out the carbon soot. I'll bet if you were behind your friend's RSX and he did the same, you'll see black smoke coming out of his pipes too.

 

Thanks a lot brotha.....I can sleep now!

 

This is completely normal, I have no Cat. Converter on mine, and my rear bumper gets completely covered in soot, it did with the converter, but it is horrible w/o it.

 

Man, i was starting to get worry about this.....but you guys are the best.......Xviper your da best!!!

 

I noticed black soot on my rear bumper when my car was new. I washed it off several times. I was pretty mellow for the first 500 miles (not). After 500 miles, all hell broke loose. I get a very, very small amount of soot on the bumper at this time. I usually drive no less than 50 miles at a time. When I do drive, it is full tilt boogie. I burn all the shit out of the oil and combustion chamber.

I don't drive across town or to the store just to show off my car. I have a Honda CRV that I drive to work or to the store. Like I said, when I drive the S, it is for pure pleasure and enjoyment. I wouldn't pay 30g's just to impress somebody.

 

as dave said, it all depends on how u drive ur car, if u dont climb the rpm ladder on a regular basis, there will be some carbon buildup throughout ur exhaust system, once u do some "spirited driving" and let the car breath a little all of that goes away, and also keep in mind the s2's are setup to run slightly rich

 

It was mostly before I reached 500 miles. Maybe part of break in. At 3,000 miles, there is very, very little black shi_ on my bumper. Before I reached 500 miles, there was a shi_load of black shi_ on my bumper that I washed off two or three times. As I stated above, I usally drive my S2K no less than 50 miles at a time and I make use of all available power and 6 speed transmission, hence burning out condensation, carbon and soot out of the oil and combustion chamber.

 

Don't worry just keep on making smoke. Now if your not smoking that's something you should worry about....

 

NFRs2000NYC et al,

Don't know if I agree with any of the responses on this thread, folks. A properly running, modern, electronically fuel injected automobile, running the standard stoichiometric fuel mixture, will NOT produce black smoke out the tailpipe for more than a fraction of a second. Remember, I said "properly running". Also the tailpipe will almost always be a charcoal gray. Unless of course you use your S2K as a police cruiser and idle for hours at the donut shop so the Cat never heats up.

I respectfully disagree with y'all. There is nothing unique about the physical burn properties of this motor other than it is even more efficient than most. If anything, the almost perfect lense shaped combustion chamber architecture, the dead center plug placement and 7000+ feet/minute piston speeds should make it happier with leaner ratios. And all else being equal the factory would opt for lean over rich.

As a side note, my motor will idle for over five minutes after I turn off the fuel pump and let the pressure fall to ZERO. That's over five minutes at zero pressure. Near as I can tell, it's just sucking the fuel out of the rail! This is with a bone stock S2K motor.

On the other hand, I don't drive an S2K on the street so this is mostly just my theory about your world. In any event, I think an hour on a chassis dyno with a wide band O2 sensor would be worth your time. Probably not more than $200 to $300. $$$ well spent on such a fine ride.