I have to wipe my rolled exhaust tips (Borla) every day to remove the black carbon. My car runs fine-doesn't use oil, no smoking, etc. What's going on? Is it running too rich or lean, etc? Bear with me, I'm no mechanic. I've pulled fuses to reset the computer, but nothing seems to help. What gives?
You are running rich. My 95 SE has no cat and has MSDS headers and when I get on the gas around 5k rpm I get black smoke. It seems to run rich at WOT. Are doing a lot of hard driving? You wouldn't see the smoke because you have cats, so you might be clogging up your cats, I would get that checked out.
I like to go through the gears and usually end up around 65 or 70 routinely. Normal shifting, no racing, usually. I guess I'll have to make an appointment to have it checked out. Could be wrong but I don't think it did this before I got the optimized TB from Buckshot. Could that have anything to do with it?
That was normal for my car (SVT) but im not sure about the SE. I ahve a 3 liter hybrid swap now and i get the smae thing.
I though all of the duratecs run rich....not just the svt.
Lupe
I think part of it has to do with the way the Borla tips are shaped(rolled out as opposed to straight cut). Seems to happen alot with Borla owners.
My Borla tips do the same thing.
Most cars with cats have black on the inside of the tailpipes. You probably have a normal condition. My stock SVT has always had black on the inside of the exhaust tips.
In the absense of any other problems, I would certainly not pursue it.
I wipe off the caps on my supertrapps twice a week.
The insides of my tail pipes are so clean you could eat off of them! To my knowledge this is a sign of a somewhat lean condition, but I'm not complaining. The car is mostly stock, drives perfectly (passed emissions) and from what I've heard running lean actually makes more power (with less gas). When I first bought the car I was suspicious of this since a lean condition is more dangerous to ones engine, but after a while I just figured this was another tick used by SVT to make more power. Turns out that I'm the only one...maybe I've got a ringer!
When was the last time you checked your cars air filter?
When I got my tour, I noticed an excessive amount of soot on the stock tips. In performing the routine maintenance associated with a new vehicle, I popped the airbox and...it looked like a rat had built a nest in there (the worst I've ever seen for 11k on the clock...). A new K&N drop-in and no soot ever since!
Regards, Art
Check my site. Air filter is fine.
I'm convinced its because of the shape of the Borla tip. I'm not saying it makes more carbon, but the shape of it allows more of it to build up on the outside of the tips, where people will actually take notice.
I had no problem with this until i had my resonator cut out. Now soot not only builds up on and in the tail pipes but also creaps up on the rear valence.
Not to hijack the post. But do you guys think that's normal with the resonator cut out or do i have bigger problems?
i have the Borla tips and they are black in a day or two. I just live with it.
To brighten up the thread a bit, I love the way the Borla sounds.
it happens to my borlas as well....
