Rich or lean

[GottaHaveLS1]

Can anyone tell me how one tells if a car is running an A/F ratio that is too rich or too lean? If it's too rich, i think one would smell it sometimes, but are there any other effects?

[x-40oz-x]

There will be more smoke come from your exhaust if it's too rich. Also on a carb it will flood it.

[GOODZ/BADZ]

If it's rich you'll have poor gas mileage and you'll smell it in the exhaust and feel it burn your eyes :) . If it's lean you'll have a loss in power. If you have access to a scanner hook it up and check the air/fuel ratio, 14.7 to 1 is the ideal mixture.

[keliente]

If it's rich you'll have poor gas mileage and you'll smell it in the exhaust and feel it burn your eyes :) . If it's lean you'll have a loss in power. If you have access to a scanner hook it up and check the air/fuel ratio, 14.7 to 1 is the ideal mixture.

Hypothetically speaking. In real life when tuning cars, an idle might be that lean, but at WOT the a/f is anywhere in the 12.5-13.5 range.