SV21/3sfe camry problems, running rich, back firing etc

[rtrona]

Hey guys, have a daily driver sv21 camry shitter, with a 3sfe in it, anyways for the last 6months or so a friend has used it and its been running pretty poorly, idles rough, when driving it the revs go up between gear changes, blows copious amounts of black smoke, oil smells like fuel, pig roots, and to top it off im pretty sure the Head gasket is buggered. Anyway i have it back to change the engine in it, and went and put some fuel in it to drive it to the place where it will be changed, and now it is backfiring badly, and just dumping heaps of fuel out the exhaust, as it is blowing heaps of black smoke, and went it backfires it is just a big cloud of black smoke. Rather entertaining! the car also cranks strange, real slow, sometimes normal, sometimes slow. Battery is good, have changed it out with another and same thing. Has a real bad water trickling noise through the heater pipes also!

Anyone have any idea's? Wont matter so much as new engine is going in, and hopefully all ok after that. Just curious however.

[Dazza]

Might be just a faulty fuel pressure regulator causing it to blow black smoke and run rough. If you can hear noises in the heater pipes, it must have air in the cooling system. A compression test should tell you if you have a blown head gasket and sometimes the spark plugs will have all the carbon washed off them if coolant is getting into a cylinder.