[s-cars] Head Gasket update - running rich from MTM 1+?

[Walsh, Edward]

Ok, a tiny rant first....

So I bring my car to the dealer (Reitzel Porsche Audi) on Sunday night.  I
do this so the car will be stone cold when the tech starts it in the AM.  I
type a comprehensive letter specifying what I have inspected/suspected was
ailing the car.  I provided information about the car's history as well as
some of the fine suggestions culled from the list.  I ask the tech to start
the car and stand by the tailpipe to witness the plume.

At the top of the list I write:  "perform compression and leak down test".

Well, I hear nothing from them all day, so I call at 4pm.  "Your car is all
set, sir".  I'm like, "what did they find".  I get, "all I know is your car
is all set".  "Can I speak to the tech".  "No. he went home".  "What did
they find on the leak down test?".  "Um, I'll have someone call you back"

I'm now thinking, WTF, I waited a week for this?

Nobody calls, so I call back.  Same girl answers the phone and hustles me to
a "Service Representative".  He reads me the work order:  "Blah blah,
checked for HG leak and smoke... Could not reproduce smoke, car runs fine,
no signs of HG leak, fluid levels OK blah blah".  No smoke?  the smoke is
more reliable than the sun.... it always happens every morning!  So I ask
him what the compression and leak down numbers are.  "Uh, I don't see that
those tests were performed".  I'm like,   ##*&#Q_@^@@&( !!!!

Anyway, I go to pick it up.  Once there I politely ask to see the service
manager, he is an ex-mechanic that knows the AAN.  I have dealt with him
before and he seems to know his shnitz.  We go out to the car, I pop the
hood, the motor is cold.  (It was supposedly tested 1 hour ago).  I look at
the trip odometer and it reads 0.5 miles more than when I dropped it off.
(so much for the "road test").  I start the motor and 10 seconds later it
starts to smoke as normal.  The tech goes back to the tail pipe, puts his
head in the stream (!) and proclaims, "That's not oil, that's not coolant,
that's gas"  He then runs his finger on the ID of the tailpipe and it is
very sooty.  He asks:

How does the car run:  Good
Is there oil in coolant:  No
Is there coolant in the oil:  No
Does the motor consume either:  No
Does it smoke on boost:  No
Does the engine ever smoke when warm:  No
Is the car chipped:  Yes
Did the smoking start just after the chipping:  Yes

So, he concludes that the new S/W is making something wacky happen with the
cold start fuel enrichment system.  He believes that too much fuel is being
dumped into the motor when it is cold, which produces the smoke.  This makes
sense.  My only doubt is that the smoke doesn't smell particularly gassy,
the engine is rock solid even when smoking (I would think it would stumble
with too much gas) and I have never heard of this being a failure mode of
the S/W

I called Hoppen and spoke with Mike.  He says there is no way the S/W is
responsible.  He thinks I may have a bad injector that is possibly leaking
fuel overnight and/or may have a bad spray pattern.  This too makes sense.
Maybe the increased duty cycle has caused an injector to fail.  I did hear
light pinging one day when it was super hot.

Does anyone have any thoughts?  How would I test the injectors?

Thank you all, Ed


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