What's making my 1g run rich?

[JohnnyWadd]

Got a question that I was wondering if someone could help me with. I have a 1991 Eagle Talon TSi 2.0 Turbo FWD. She's been running really rich, and I'm not understanding why. The plugs are turning black in short periods of time whenever I replace them. I get black smoke out of the tail pipe and really hard starts. When I do get her running, she doesn't idle very well. She does all right at driving speeds, but if I don't feather the gas at stop lights, she'll die on me.

The hard starting problem is really weird. She'll fire right off, but die instantly. As soon as the starter is disengaged, she'll shut off. If I don't disengage the starter right away, which I know is a horrible thing to do to a starter, she'll stay running until I disengage it. If I hit the gas with the starter spinning the flywheel, she'll rev up, but again, as soon as I disengage the starter, she'll die.

I've played around with a couple of things trying to figure this out. First off, the turbo has been replaced. I was having another problem when the turbo would try to engage, and I thought the problem of running rich and the turbo troubles were related. I was in an accident a while back and the turbo got damaged. It was no longer working. I replaced it, and it cured one problem, but the rich problem remains. Also, the ISC motor chatters like a chipmunk at me when the key is on, but the engine off. Well, not all the time. Just whenever it feels like it, I guess.

I've changed a couple of things on her trying to fix this. I replaced the ISC motor and the Mass Airflow Meter. Neither was replaced with new parts, so I guess it's possible that one of them could've been bad, but got replaced with another bad one. I put a new oxygen sensor on it, but have yet to get her started to see if that helps. Is it possible that the oxygen sensor was bad, and the computer is set to the readings from the old oxygen sensor? That it won't be able to change the settings until the oxygen sensor gets up to temperature even though I had the battery disconnected? Oh, almost forgot. I also replaced all of the vacuum lines.

That's about all I can think of. If I come up with more, I'll post it later. If you have any ideas for me, I welcome them.

Thanks
Jon

[JohnnyWadd]

All right, I'm thinking that the ECU is shot. Remember how I said that the ISC Motor would chatter at me like a chipmunk? Well, that's not the only thing that likes to make noise at me. Every once in a while, I get some crazy noise out of those three vacuum motors that sit above the brake master cylinder. Specifically, when it decides to make noise, it makes a constant chatter out of the middle vacuum motor out of the three.

I just went out and turned on the key, and the turbo guage kicked up to just over zero for a few seconds. Stopped at about 2 pounds of boost. Then, that center vacuum motor kicked in and started making a bunch of obnoxious noises. When it did that, the guage jumped up to about 5 pounds of boost and vibrated slightly up and down. Not sure what the deal was there.

The car itself has no aftermarket modifications, with the exception of a K&N Filter. So, for all intents and purposes, there are no mods, whatsoever. What do I have to do to use a data logger on it? I don't know anything about that. If anybody can tell me what to do, I'd appreciate it.

Oh, one last thing. When the plugs foul, all of them foul. Not just one or two.

All right, that's all I can think of. If you've got some ideas for me, I'd love to hear them. Sounds like a computer to me. What do you think?

Thanks
Jon

[JohnnyWadd]

Can anybody tell me if there's a way that the ECU can be tested after I take it off the car? Do I have to ship it to that place in Florida, or is there more places that they can be taken? I'd appreciate any information you can give me.

Thanks
Jon

[JohnnyWadd]

Forgot to say that it's a 5-speed.

[JohnnyWadd]

Okay, we can close the book on my problems, once and for all. I've finally gotten my Talon back in working order. That ECU was shot. Yesterday I pulled one out of another car and put it in. She started right up. So, I'm rolling again, and it's in no small part to all you guys that helped me out on this website. Thanks for everything. You guys saved me.

Jon