328 runs rich at startup

10-10-2003, 11:17 AM

This has been occuring for a while, and it really hasn't been bothering me, but emission testing is due this month.

Immediately after startup, I get a strong gasoline smell in the exhaust and a large volume of greyish smoke from the driver's side exhaust. After just a few minutes, when the car warms up, the exhaust smells normal and isn't visible anymore.

I pulled the plugs and they all look exactly the same, so I don't think I'm dropping a cylinder or bank. The car runs fine, pulls to the redline and doesn't overheat or turn the cat red, nothing like that. The cat ECU is unplugged due to it failing the self-test. At idle in the morning it does sound a bit uneven, but it smooths out quickly.

Any thoughts?

10-10-2003, 08:14 PM

Are you sure the greyish smoke isn't steam as the cat warms up?

Really not possible to determine if it's really to rich, or how rich or what could be wrong without some exhaust gas numbers from an analyzer.

Regards, JRV