92 Camry 2.2 Black smoke & won't idle Help

[cato47]

Help Toyota Ace Mechanics !!!

I just bought a 92 Camry and it won't idle and my wife noticed black smoke, not blue, coming out the exhaust pipe when I drove the car home. It wasn't a black cloud but it was noticleable at different times I accelerated. I've checked the plug wires, they are OK. I've checked the spark plugs and all (4) of them have the same black sooty carbon powder look. They are not oil saturated at all, just black like she is running rich. The air cleaner is clean as a whistle

Could this be an egr valve or an oxygen sensor that is causing the car to run rich and not idle? You have to keep tapping the excellerator pedal when stopped or she dies. The car has 225K miles on it but the engine doesn't seem to be warn out at all. It goes down the road good once you get her rolling off of the idle where she doesn't want to stay running. I bought the car for $200 so I've got lots of wiggle room. Please, somebody give me the silver bullet cure for what ails this car.


Many thanks in advance for all advice and hopefully the cure.

Rick

cato47@netzero.net

[vicchang]

Could be your Ox sensor. You can measure the resistance to see if it's within the spec. EGR will cause rough idle but not dark smoke. I believe it's rich

[chronoti]

good deal on that car if anything you can make more money scraping it ....

but check the o2 sensor, injectors might be sticking, and fuel pressure regulator might be bad, also check the coolant temp sensor if it reading too low it would cause the car to run rich to try and warm up.

add some new plugs and check the wires, cap, and roter, also sea foaming the top end would help alot with that carbon build up (or take the car to toyota for that)

also if you dont have a repair manual check the one at the top of the forum if your on dail up it's worth the wait to download it.

[cato47]

Chronoti:

Thank you for your detailed reply. I did get into the car a bit more today and the distributor cap looked really bad. The (4) posts were very very corroded and the spring loaded contact at the top of the cap was shoved flush and does not have any spring in it at all. The rotor also looked like crap. It took 8-10 hard scrapes with the edge of a good size screwdriver to get the corrosion off the leading edge of the rotor and I still couldn't see brass. Finally I hit the rotor with some sandpaper and the brass finally came through. Could a seriously worn cap and rotor make her run rich? I hope so, as this would be a easy and inexpensive fix. I think it's possible the cap and rotor could be the originals.

One last question off the original topic. It looks like there is oil around the spark plug tubes. The car has serious oil leakage but I'm realatively sure it's not front or rear main seals as these areas appear dry. I changed the O-Ring on the ditributor today and noticed the back of the engine compartment will never corrode for all of the oil that has leaked. I'm thinking it's coming from the valve cover gasket and spark plug tubes. Do the 2.2's have a history of valve covers leaking? I was able to get an easy 1/3 of a turn on the nuts of the spark plug tubes that tighten the valve cover. I've heard there are also some gaskets or O-Rings for the spark plug tubes. If so, where are they located? Anymore help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Rick

PS I will be buying a new cap, rotor, valve cover gasket and spark plug tube gaskets tomorrow. These parts will surely help.

[cato47]

Chronoti:

I do have the manual. What is sea foaming the top end all about? I've never heard that terminology.

Rick
cato47@netzero.net

[chronoti]

your welcome,

yes the cap can cause that much problems, weak spark could cause the engine to miss and left over fuel will them be burnt off.

try replacing the wires too while your at it. they maybe good but i had a set of wires for a nissan where the wire it self had part of the gasket that kept oil from leaking in to the tubes.

http://toyotanation.com/forum/t71030.html

thats a thread i found about it right quick, if you need more info on it search some more but it basicaly a cleaner you add while the engine is running that helps to remove the carbon build up from the engine. toyota calls it top end cleaning and charges like 60 to do it, or you can do it with a 6 can of sea foam.