cheap gas? not combusting properly and leaving crap behind.

 

I ran almost every type of gas under the sun from 7-11 to Costco to Mobil yet never had any soot.

 

EGR,
Sorry that I have not gotten back to you sooner. I will check after I get out of work tonight and post tomorow

 

Not cheap gas. I only run Shell 87,89 and 93 octane. I clean the pipe and the soot is visable again after 3-4 days (about 300-400 miles). Otherwise the truck runs great.

 

Not cheap gas. I only run Shell 87,89 and 93 octane. I clean the pipe and the soot is visable again after 3-4 days (about 300-400 miles). Otherwise the truck runs great.

 

my 4.2 runs great, gets 19 mpg, but has a sooty tail pipe.

 

I too have a 2003 4.2l v6 with 10,000 miles on it (all put on by me) and I have the black sooty tailpipe too but my truck runs great and i have not seen any problems only problem i have noticed is this damn sooty tailpipe, the black soot not only gets all over teh pipe but gets on the truck too right behind the exhaust pipe i dunno if its bad or not but im taking it to the dealer next thursday 11-20-03 and i will ask about that, i doubt its cheap gas because the only gas i put in is Chevron...

 

i also have the same problem. i've been switching between premium and basic fuels the past 2 months, but i've had the soot since i got it. (4 months ago)

whats good to remove it? i'll test how long it takes for my soot to come back..

 

At 1600 miles on my '03 the tailpipe is clean. I wonder if the soot may be due to certain additives in the gas in different locations. Here in NY they are going to outlaw the use of MTBE in gas and replace it with ethanol I think. Also, I think that we get different blends of gas in the winter versus summer. I'll keep an eye on mine to see if it changes.

 

my 2003 4.2L 6er has just over 6,000 on the clock and i have the soot problem too. i really notice it arround the exhaust clamps and the little drain hole in the muffler it runs grereat, sounds good, 18 mpg. i previously had a 97 F-150 4.2L and it had just as much soot on it at 108,000miles as my current one has at 6 ???

 

I have a 98 with the 4.2L and the only time i get black smoke is hen i punch the gas to get the truck from 35mph to 80 mph...

get the truck in the shop and have it repaird before you have or create more problems

 

well, its not that were getting black smoke coming out of the exhaust cuz were not.. were getting some sort of "soot" coming out of the exhaust and it gets all over the end of the pipe and on mine (its an oxford white truck) so the soot ends up on the end of the truck (where the exhaust is)
btu there isnt any black smoke or any smoke at all for that matter..

 

yes ... i have never seen smoke or soot come out of the exhaust but i can see whare it is building up on the insides of the pipe

 

It is perfectly normal for the tail pipe to look black and sooty as described. Mine looks the same and runs fine. That is how these motors run today. It use to be years ago that a black sooty tail pipe was an indicator of problems. Not today, it is how the motors are designed to operate.

Ask Mike Troyer in the Computer Chips forum. He is the Superchips distributor and has done extensive testing on F150’s. When asked the question about the black sooty tail pipe he indicated it was nothing to worry about since it is normal…