have just got back from working away, and thought i would start on getting the trans am on the road, its now starting and running thanks to the ecm/vats bypass, but its getting too much fuel and running like crap, black soot out of the exhaust and wont tick over, its had new distributor/icm/cap/rotor/ the car is a 1989 trans am gta convertible 5.7 tpi, revs fine but its just running too rich, has anyone got any ideas what it could be, any help would be much appreciated.

 

Maybe your O2 sensor? Are your injectors failing or gone already? I would ohm them and see where you're at with them. Also, have you done any tuning with it? Is your SES light on?

 

thanks for the reply, all injectors have been checked and ohm fine, there has been no tuning that i know of, do you know where the 02 sensor is located, it might be worth checking out

 

It should be on the driver side exhaust manifold. I believe it should throw a code, though. Also, maybe your coolant temp sensor is bad and causing it to think it's colder than it is? Just a thought. That usually has a larger impact than just running rich though. Still, it's only like $11 at Autozone so worth it if you have the change laying around.

 

yeah its worth a shot, im in the uk so parts are a little more but its not the price of the parts its just trying to find out why its doing it, thats why i was wondering if anyone on this site has had the same problem with there car, but all suggestions are very helpfull

 

It's odd for it to run rich for any length of time, so clearly something's up. I would say it would be rich right after start up, but once it warms up with the O2 sensor in closed loop, it should run normal. Let us know what, if anything, you find out.