I was changing my spark plugs and wires today and noticed that every one of my plugs was wet with gas. The car had sat for several hours.
I'm also getting 14 mpg. The scanner told me I was going rich/lean as it should.

Can anyone give me an idea of what's wrong with my mileage and gassy plugs? I'm thinking they go hand in hand.

I have the 350 TPI.

 

leaky injectors................

get a fuel pressure gauge and prime the system (turn ignition on but don't start the car). the fuel pressure should be around 43 or so and it should hold. Have you had any hard start problems or did you ever small raw gas in the exhaust?

 

I agree with him. Also Check the gaps on the spark plugs with the emissions lable on the underside of the hood. I have a hayes repair manual and for an 85' TPI it said to gap them at .045" and I did but my performance went down. Pulled them and I noticed the emissions lable and it said .035"

 

On cold start it pops right over.
On warm starts it takes a little longer.

I'll check the pressure but what are the odds of all 8 injectors being leaky?

 

Getting too much fuel (ie rich) will cause a hot-start problem but won't cause cold-start problem (to an extent). Definately sounds like leaky injectors to me. All 8 injectors don't have to be leaking to cause these kind of problems.

 

I'll have to find the valve.

I see what you're saying but I'm still wondering how gas can be on all 8 plugs unless all 8 are leaking.

Strange things happen with my bird

 

My plugs are gapped at .035

I tested the pressure and it went to 42. After 4 minutes it had dropped down to 40.

My exhaust does smell a bit rich and I do have the residue in my tailpipe indicating a rich condition.

What do you guys think?

 

Are you sure you're getting spark out of that one plug? You could mist some water (spray bottle) over your exhaust manifold, or header, and run the motor. If all the mist clears up, except for the mist on the exhaust tube of that ONE cylinder, then that cylinder is misfiring.

 

All cylinders are firing. There's gas on all plugs.

The idle is sweet. No roughness whatsoever. It started to miss which is why I went through and gave it new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. That's when I found the gas on the plugs.

 

Any other ideas?

I talked to a GM tech yesterday and he told me that it's "normal". WTF does he know?
He started trying to impress me with his knowledge of how gear ratios, tranny's, mileage, blah blah blah affect the gas mileage. No kidding.
He didn't want to hear that these cars can pull 25+ mpg highway.

Oh yeah, the other day after driving it for 30 miles I parked it for around 20 minutes. When I started it up it was acting flooded. Rough running, surging idle.....once I goosed it it pretty much cleared up.
I can understand the current popular idea of leaky injectors but what I don't understand is how ALL 8 could be bad. Again, I have gas on ALL 8 plugs.

How long should the pressure hold when I prime the system? When I checked it took about 4-5 minutes to drop around 2 psi.

help oh great ones
:hail:

 

A leaking fuel pressure regulator will cause all 8 to fuel foul and cause hot-start problems.
Oh, and FP should hold for a few hours at least. If yours dropped that quickly, there is definitely a leak. You can pull the vacuum line off the regulator and see if there is fuel present.

 

nevermind (double post).....

 

I've been thinking fpr. I'm hoping it's the fpr.
I'll check that today. Thanks!

 

Pulled the vacuum line. I could smell gas but I couldn't see it. Is smelling it normal? I would think not.
Correct?

 

Try running the pump, then pulling the vac. line. Or you could even pull it with the engine running.......but i'm almost positive that's what's wrong.

The vacuum line will pull fuel through the regulator and send it right into the engine causing every cylinder to run rich. And it will cause hard hot -starts becuase it wont hold rest pressure and the fuel will boil. This causes air bubbles in the rail and obvoiusly air bubbles don't ignite well.

 

Did some more testing. My whole ignition system is operating properly. So that's out. The resistance on the injectors seem to be withing spec as well.

Is there a better way of checking to see if the plugs are leaking besides pulling the plenum and rail to see if there's drippage?

Cali, If I do what you suggest am I looking for actual fuel in the vac line? I can currently smell it in there but not see it. Of course who can see in that small friggin hole.

 

Yes you are looking for actual fuel. It won't be much. Another thing you can do is run the car to build pressure, then shut it off. Then hook up a vacuum pump to the pressure regulator and pump it a few times. Let it sit for a few minutes and see if there is any fuel in the hose of the vacuum pump.

Honestly , though, i've got my money on the regulator being bad. Only 4 things can cause fuel pressure to not hold:
--Leaking injector (which would only foul 1 plug, 8 leaking is HIGHLY unlikely)
--Bad check valve in the fuel pump(won't foul 8 plugs)
--Leak in fuel line (also won't foul 8 plugs)
--Fuel pressure regulator (CAN foul all plugs)