vbb

Who else has it?

I've posted a thread about this in Under the Hood, but I'm having trouble getting straight answers. I'm new to the aftermarket turbo system crowd, having boosted my S2000 for all of 300 miles now. It's the stock Greddy kit at 8lbs with the Emanage Ultimate (tuned), 550 RC injectors and Walbro 255lph fuel pump. I've also got a test pipe and an HKS dual exhaust if that matters. I did an oil change when installing the turbo so it has only seen fresh Valvoline SynPower.

Short question is this: is it normal to smell some fuel in the oil, or is it always a sign of potential problems?

After getting a "system too rich" CEL I decided to smell my oil at the dipstick because of what I read on the boards. It smelled a bit like gasoline to me. It wasn't overpowering, but the smell was there. For comparison sake, I pulled the dipstick in my TSX and it also smelled a little bit like gas, though not as strong as in the S2000. Just to be on the safe side, I went ahead and did an oil change on the S2000 and haven't driven it since.

Here's a sample of what my oil looked like after roughly 300mi of usage:



I don't know if that is too dark, normal, or what. There's no gasoline that I can SEE in the oil, but I'm afraid of fuel wash/bore wash because of the smell. Maybe I'm being too paranoid, I don't know. During my tuning session I was mid-11s AFR at WOT and in the mid 13s at idle. A little richer than stock, but not crazy rich I wouldn't think. My tuner says I'm getting the CEL because it is a piggyback and the car isn't seeing exactly stock AFRs, but that I'm safe, and not so rich that I need to be worried about washing my motor. I'm installing a wideband this weekend to make sure those are still the numbers I'm getting.

EDIT/UPDATE towards bottom of page with AFR #s now that I have my wideband installed.

Deception

there are 2 ways to troubleshoot this...

the free way: take the dipstick and hold a lighter up to it.... if the flame changes size you have too much gas in the oil

the other way: get a Blackstone analysis kit & send them a sample

If it makes you feel any better my oil has smelled a little like fuel for as long as I can remember.. I recently took a sample for Blackstone but have not sent it in yet. The lighter test came back negative.

sata3000

The smell of gas is overpowering on my dip stick. As soon as I pulled it I could smell gas.I did the lighter test and my flame did not change.. I'm going to meet up with my tuner ASAP just to get everything checked out.

vbb

I've read everything from the smell of gas on the dipstick being normal in F/I setups to it being a huge danger sign. Hard to know what to believe, but I don't want to blow the engine and find out the hard way.

Ahnold

Sounds like your tuner doesn't know how to tune a piggyback. You are getting a CEL because it's not tuned right for idle and cruise, basically, anytime the engine is in closed loop. I believe the CEL comes on when the LTFT gets to +/- 20%. This is not ok!

Disconnect your front oxygen sensor and wait for the CEL to come on. When it does, the ECU is in open loop. Now watch your AFR's on your wideband while driving around. Idle and cruise should be near 14.7:1. I'm sure they are nowhere near that right now.

vbb

^^ I see you also have the Greddy kit. How do you tune LTFT on emanage? How do I keep it +/- 5% or less? Is this something that can be easily manipulated? I was watching my tuner, but admittedly the only thing I was watching for was my AFRs and max power/torque. I have no idea what he was doing with the idle, if anything. When I go back to him, I'd like to have some sort of idea of what to look for and ask him about as far as closed loop tuning is concerned.

Vi3tBoy

Mines smells like e85. Been like that and so far no problems for me.

Are you on 91-93 or e85?

vbb

I'm tuned on 93 octane. I'm beginning to think a fuel smell in boosted cars is kind of normal, but an overpowering smell or fuel in your oil that you can actually see probably is not. My oil sample has not separated in the week or so since I put it in that bottle, so I don't think the fuel levels in the oil were too high.

This is not to say that I still don't need to figure out how to lean out the mixture in closed loop/idle.

Ahnold

Tune in open loop. Disconnect front O2 sensor. This will cause ECU to go into open loop. Now, instead of fighting STFT and LTFT, you will basically be adding or subtracting fuel from the ECU basemap. Need to shoot for 14.7:1 AFR for idle and low load so that when in closed loop, the ECU will be happy.

Jack_in_the_Box

this is very interesting stuff since i will going to the same tuner VBB had on monday. i guess i'll definitely be seeing you monday kev :hi: