ok so my buddy has a 93 with the 22re efi. it has been giving us problems with no power. sometimes it will run good enough to pull up a hill. most times it will just all the sudden loose power, rough idle, pours black smoke and actually throws flames out the exhaust some times. we were thinking timing is off a little. but im thinking he is loosing compression somewhere. any ideas. and if you need more info, i can try and articulate a little more.

Black smoke sounds like unburned fuel, ignition system would be my first check.

we have replaced the dist. cap and rotor button. coil, plugs, wires. so i dont know what else in the ignition department to check.

Have you checked for trouble codes in the ecu? Is the ignition timing correct?

thats a good question. i know he replaced the ecu recently. so that might be a possiblity. ill get back to ya later on that one. thanks.

ok so we have replaced the fuel pressure regulator and fixed the timing but it still runs like hell. its still pumping black smoke, and now it has started throwing flames from the exhaust.
HELP

TPS is a good bet, followed by the AFM.

sorry, im not up to par on the accronyms. Im assuming TPS is throttle position sensor and what is AFM.

Air flow meter, it's the silver unit on top of the air filter housing.

Ok, as far as the Air Flow Meter. we replaced that last earlier this year. so i dont know.