I have a TPI 350 stock engine and ever since I bought it I have noticed that it runs real rich. For instance I will turn it on and after about 20 seconds have sitting there I get a strong smell of gas inside the car. Same with at stop lights if I sit for more than 20 I smell the strong fumes. Why is it running so rich?

 

Check your coolant temp sensor. If it's bad it'll cause a rich or lean condition.

 

So will an oxygen sensor, or anything which "fools" the O² into an artificially rich reading. A new O² every ten years is not asking too much.

 

I think its important to identify where the gas smell is coming from. If it was comming out of the exhaust accompanied by black smoke drive ability problems maybe poor fuel economy ect I would tend to agree the car is running rich. However youve made no mention of any other issues just the smell. What if you have a fuel leak or a malfunction in your EVAP system? Both conditions could cause a strong smell of fuel but would not cause the car to be running rich.

 

My fuel economy is way worse then listed on the dealer sticker. Where it is supposed to get 22 highway and 16 city while I am only getting 150-180 miles per tank of gas which is about 10-12 mpg. Have not noticed black smoke though.

 

Well yea if you had issues like a fuel leak for example your gas mileage would go down as well so i guess that gas mileage would be a bad example. Maybe try pulling a plug and seeing what color it is? If its nice and tan than your probably not running rich where as if its black and smells like fuel you probably are. I would try the following. With the car off you can fire up the fuel pump circuit through the diagnostic port or manually jumping the relay. I would activate the fuel pump and inspect the lines for leaks. Its important to do this with the car off as the motor gets to hot to really get in there to inspect things 100% plus fuel vapors would get blown around so it would be hard to pinpoint. I would also pull the vacuum line to the fuel pressure regulator and see if fuel comes out. Next after running the car for a while I would try and see where the fuel smell is coming from. Obviously the exhaust would be one place to check but also get a good smell around areas like where the EVAP canister is.