Anyone have any idea what's going on with my car. Cold start spits a moist black soot thick enough to leave a completely black area under the tail pipe as though it were painted? There is no smoke or gasoline odor.

Actually, it is pretty normal. Water made during the burning of fuel condenses in cold exhaust. In old richer running vehicles there is often some soot formed in the richer regions of running, cold start is one of those regions. The soot mixes with the water and makes a mess.

Obviously, if your car ran leaner less soot would be available to mix with the water. If you get that guy lean enough to get 17mph on the road you will have much less soot.

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

Thanks for your input Steve. I figured it is running rich, but I live in rural area and it is difficult to find someone with the right equiptment.
Regards,
Mike

Same here with the soot, but on a82 380 sl.Sometimes it coughs abit before r
unning good.For the most part, when warm it runs great.To help this, is a exhaust gas test needed.Very new at this .Thanks for any advise.....till then search and search.......

guess i could have looked at the date of that post back. to the search button.