No, not just a little or "whats normal for an s2k" I mean it's abnormal how rich the car is running. If I drive it aggressively, by the end of the week my entire bumper will have black soot on it. If you look at my tailpipes, they are completely covered in black soot.

At night, you can easily see the smoke coming out if I press the throttle half way.

Most embarassing is when I'm going balls out, I'm talking plumes of smoke coming out, it's ridiculous. I'll do a short sprint into vtec in 3rd, look in my rearview mirror after letting off the gas, and just see a huge cloud in the middle of the road.

It's like spy hunter. If I want to lose someone, I simply rev the engine and let the smoke fly out.

So how do I go about leaning the car out?

 

There is no magic. If it was that rich it would throw a code (CEL). So, do you have test pipe and 02 cheaters? Start there. The car runs closed loop just fine with sensors. However, the Early cars ran rich by design, and that can be fixed by replacing/remapping the ECU from one of the list vendors.

 

Yeah I know it ran rich by design, but this is insane. I've owned an 00 ap1 before, and it never ran this rich.

I figured it would need a new/different ECU, just wanted to make sure this would be the best fix.

So what is the cheapest way to go about changing the ecu? Not looking to spend alot. Or is it unavoidable that I have to throw 500+ at it.

 

you mentioned in another thread you burn 4-5 quarts of oil in one month.

this may be oil, and not fuel.

i think you've got bent valves and worn out valve guides.

you should really do a leakdown test, a compression test at the very least.

 

i got a MY00 with header back exhaust..and i had the same stuff you mentioned, specially when shifting at high rpm

apexi AFC will do the job ..

 

I also have a 00 with header, testpipe, exhaust and I only notice a slight black smoke with hard exceleration. I dont have any unusual amount of oil loss either

 

Sounds like oil based on your consumption rates

 

But would oil burning create that much black smoke all over the tailpipes and back of my car?

I have a feeling it's probably mixed: it's burning an assload of oil AND running rich.

I love my lemon s2k from Carmax.

 

I've been told a two different things from two different people about what's going on. The dude at the s2000 place said that the sleeves are probably messed up, or the valves need to be tightened/adjusted.

Another person said the previous owner must have miss downshifted and overrevved the engine.

Sadly when I test drove the car it was broad daylight and didn't notice the smoke coming out. Otherwise I would have never bought the car. I did not notice the smoke until months later when my friend was driving behind me and saw it.

Also, when you pop the hood and look at my engine, there's a crapload of oil/black stuff all over it. Someone said that the headgasket could be causing that, or I need new valve springs and retainers.

 

sounds like you are getting a lot of misinformation from all over the place