Black Smoke after Accident

Service King "Totaled" my 2003 Pontiac Vibe because of it's year and their damage estimate exceeded $7,000.

From my best estimate the damage was to the upper right front and involved the radiator, and the intake manifold after removing the hood and the right fender. the frame was undamaged. I thought I would take it upon myself to rebuild it, so I bought it from my insurance company.

I purchaed all the damaged parts: Radiator, intake mnifold, and right fender. After rebuilding it, and replacing the fluids it started up like nothing happened. After a few minutes the new radiator fan kicked on (as expected) and ran for a few minutes more. Then after a few more minutes black smoke started bellowing from the back of the engine. I killed the engine and let it cool down. Now it won't start. So my question can an engine fry that fast? I didn't run it that long. And it ran fine until the black smoke started until I killed the engine.

The engine turns over. It just won't start after the black smoke incident.

Thanks for any suggestions.

RBollinger

Reply to
robboll
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Black smoke is usually a sign of a VERY rich mixture. Are you certain all the parts from the old intake manifold that where transferred to the new one are working correctly? Also, check out all the wiring that went to any of the damaged pieces on the engine and make certain you don't have any damaged wiring and/or connectors.

Pull one of the spark plugs and see if it is carbon-fouled - that will give you some kind of an indication what is going on inside the combustion chambers.

Even with the black smoke as long as you did not hear any weird noises (knocking or banging) coming from that engine I'd suspect the engine has not suffered permanent damage, but remember that starting requires

4 things: air, fuel (in the proper air/fuel ratio), spark and crank. If any of those 4 elements are missing, the engine will not start.

Do the checks I've suggested and get back to the group and tell us your results: then we can dig deeper if necessary.

Regards, Bill Bowen Sacramento, CA

P.S. If you have access to a scan tool, see what OBD codes where set and provide those too. They'll help narrowing things down.

Reply to
William H. Bowen

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