Thanks RonJ. You are a saint for your help. I will attempt to look at what you mentioned. I just hope my untrained eye doesn't miss anything important, but it'll be a good learning experience. You think I could be hurting anything by driving my car if any of the circumstances you mentioned above are indeed faulty?

 

Hey, I'm still planning on getting underneath the car this weekend to look for damaged headers or cracked tubing of any type. I just wanted to mention that sometimes when I turn off my car, it does a second of deiseling. Not sure if this is the right term, but I'm referring to when the engine doesn't immediately die, but I'm talking like 0.5 - 1 second, like it farts out the remainer of gasoline that may be in the cylinder or something. I'm not sure if this helps indicate the issue. Should I be carefully checking the muffler / exhaust line too? It seems like my exhaust is just a hair loud... I'm not sure if this could be related too?

 

The dieseling indicates the presence of unburnt fuel in the hot exhaust system (=running very rich), consistent with your low mileage. Is your ignition timing set to spec?

 

I mean, as far as I can tell... I set the timing and even rechecked it the other day... I aligned both arrows and made them point towards the center red line on the pulley. But I agree, it does seem like something isn't being ignited, I even get a random shudder here and there when I'm sitting at a light, as if it's misfiring by a hair. Maybe it's time I take it to a pro... damn.

Would it help if I tried to snap a picture of the way it's timed? I'm not even sure if that could be caught on camera...

 

I think your timing is fine. Check the other items that can cause an engine to run very rich.

 

So, just so I understand correctly, let me repost a couple questions you asked in a previous post with responses so I can make sure I get this down:

When I type O2 sensor in the service manual, I don't find anything. Is there another name I can search?

That's this little guy here in the pic right?



How do I check if a fuel injector is stuck open?

 

1) Try searching for "oxygen" - it'll be in chapter 11. See chapter 9, exhaust system, for location.

2) Yes

3) See post #140

 

Eek, sorry, forget you already told me that.... thanks for the help. I will take a gander at everything you mentioned.

 

No problem.

 

Hey, I'm only seeing one actual picture of the primary oxygen sensor but it doesn't really show where it is. Is this under the car?