I have a 1989 3.0L Caravan, after I changed the distributor cap, rotor and spark plugs, plug wires and air filter the van as been pumping black smoke out. When I remove the intake from the air filter box there's a small puddle of gas...ie, its burning rich and hence the black smoke. Does anyone have any ideas on what is causing it?? The van was badly maintained before, and the plugs I took out was very worn. Could it be the O2 sensor????

 

Yes, Check ya O2.

 

I'd get codes & suspect your engine coolant temp sensor reads like -34 giving the pcm a FULL RICH condition

 

The codes says 12 and 55. Which means nothing according the OBD guide. I changed the O2 sensor but it still has difficulty starting when its fully at temperature and when it does start i get a puff of black smoke. Could it still be the temp sensor??

When the car gets started, the idle is rough and the rpm needle hops around.

 

I'm also suspecting its the coils..any thoughts?

 

Maybe wrong sequency on plug wires?I meand couple of cylinders not working on right time and leading
unburned gas to exhaust....

 

When was ya last tune up? You may have bad plugs & wires

 

check your firing order first. its easy to mess it up on a 3.0 a 3.0 will run pretty decent even with 3 wires pulled off. flip the cap over and look at the way it is made. the inside contacts dont correspond with the towers above. if that is fine then put a scanner on it and look at the map reading. an oil contaminated wheatstone bridge can cause chaos. look for oil in the vac line to the map sensor.
Mike

 

piston rings

 

lets hope thats not it.. but its a poss