Running Rich, Help ?

[drsly]

My 84 SVO is running rich. When I went to get it smogged, failed miserably, the mechanic told me that the Vane Air meter was bad and causing the car to run full rich. Which makes the gas mileage suck large. Any ideas. There is also oil in the vane air meter I believe it is coming from the top connection to the valve cover. How much is an air meter ? and is this really the problem ? Thanks

[Pat_in_L.A.]

Depends how the smog "technician" (and I use that word loosely) came to that determination. Also, is it all stock or do you have mods done?

Did he run trouble codes and do other diagnosis or just smog it?

A trouble code does not necessarily condemn the part itself. It just identifies the circuit that has a problem.

Most common causes of these cars failing smog are a bad O2 sensor or a bad cat.

[SVOeric]

it could be that you just have a lot of oil in your intake track. Some of that oil is making it's way into the combustion chamber, which will cause the spark not to burn all the fuel in the air/fuel charge.

Do a good tune up FIRST ---

MOTORCRAFT PARTS -- dist cap, rotor, plugs, PCV, and wires.

Use some spray on brake cleaner to clean up the oil in the hoses, intercooler, throttle body, and use a rag and clean up the VAM.

It impresses me that a smog tech even knew what a VAM was!!

[drsly]

Depends how the smog "technician" (and I use that word loosely) came to that determination. Also, is it all stock or do you have mods done?

Mods are listed on svoca.com 84 silver car DrSly plate. I have recently put the stock FPR back on. He hooked the car up to the computer and the code that returned pointed him to the VAM. Also the cat is new. He also replaced the O2 sensor. Gave me just enough to have spent the 200 bux for the smog exemption.