No, I don't have the paper in front of me, but my car failed inspection with TWO different inspection stations using TWO different type of systems.

Well, to make a long story short, I don't remember exactly what it was that didn't pass... all I know is, the one part of the test that shows you have a working or not working cat was fine... so apparently the cat isn't the problem.

The problem (if any of you guys know anything about the Texas inspection report) is of the 4 things they checked from the tailpipe, it's the top two numbers (the 3rd I have no idea what it is, and the 4th being whatever they check that says that cat is working correctly.)

Any ideas on what I need to try to do? As far as I know, the smog pump is working fine, and all of my emissions things are in place that I can see. (I've only had the car for about a month)

Side note: For those of you that have read my post about the full-throttle acceleration problem and know that I have the smog-pump belt off my car, it is NOT off when the test is conducted.

Plugs are clean and working and firing right, air filter is clean, carb is clean, uhm.... oil's recently changed, cap and wires are good.... can't think of anything else other than sensors... any idea about those? (and where the damn things are?)

Thank you in advance!

Jeff

My car, by the way is an '84 GSL (12a) 98% stock or stock replacement parts.

 

bad OMP?

 

that sucks in wichita falls they only had a safety check and as long as you didn;t have an exhuast leak or anything major wrong with the car it would pass , they would drive it around the block and that was it

 

I know mine wouldn't pass. Good thing I live in an area that doesn't do smog checking.

I know in Phoenix, AZ you have something like six months to pass after you fail or they won't give you your registration stickers. And there is no exclusion for how much money you have spent trying to make it pass.

 

Double post.

 

Any Jiffy Lubes in you area...That's where I got mine at...They just do a simple braking test. i've never had anyone go in and molest my exhaust.

 

Jiffy Lube was the first place to fail it!

I dunno what else to do... any one tried any of that stuff that's "Guaranteed" to make your carr pass the emissions test? I wonder if that might work.

-Jeff

 

You gotta post the #'s. We're just shooting in the dark otherwise.

 

Probably not.

It's hard to tell what is wrong without knowing what categories it failed. This was the reason I sold my 1st gen, they are a pain to make pass emissions, or so I have been told by many people. The biggest culprit I have heard of is the ACV. Apparently they are very expensive to replace too. There is a way to bypass the ACV and it is supposed to help a lot on emissions, but it can be tough on the cat. If you do that, do it just for the test and then put it back. Do a search in this forum, it's come up a lot before.

The only other advice I have is change your oil, make sure your timing is right and the plugs are good. Make sure you don't have any vacuum leaks too.

 

You failed:

HC
CO

You are probably running too rich. Your O2 sensor could be out. If not it could be a shot CAT.

You can try:

1) Make sure the Air Pump is running all the time.
2) Blow the car out really well on the highway.
3) Try removing vacuum hoses to lean out the idle. You can put a fish tank air valve in the loose line to control the leak.
4) Try the snake oil sold at the auto parts shop to pass emissions.
5) Find a friendly tester. A friend of mine was failing his emissions. The tester ('Mr Nitrous' in north Dallas) took the hose off of his tailpipe and slipped it on the exhaust of the van in the next stall and said, "Hmmm, that seemed to clear the problem right up."

 

HC and CO = rich.

Things that will help:

Bypass acv. Put air pump outlet onto cat inlet.

Run Methyl Hydrate (methanol, gasline antifreeze)

Make sure the car, and the thermal reactor, are HOT. Run car hard, back onto roller, start test.

Remove air cleaner

Disable OMP, or run AMSOIL for the test.

 

The air pump isn't running all the time, unless I take it to the inspection station... that's a pretty good HP gain when the belt's not on (Yes, I know it will melt my cat pretty soon, but once I pass inspection since it's already 4 months out, I'm gonna take the cat off and get an new exhaust system.)

The car is "blown out" very well everywhere.... I'm a very high RPM driver (the point of the car in the first place, right?)

As for finding a "friendly tester".... myself and a few other friends (2nd gen owners) are all looking for one... if anyone knows of one in the D/FW area, please let me know.

 

times like these im glad to be in florida, STRAIGHT PIPE DOWN THE HIGHWAY!!! WAAAAAAAAA WAAAAAAA BOP BOP

 

What will removing the air cleaner do for me?

And by the way -- stupid, gullible me, I took it to a place down the road about an hour later (after driving it even more) and that guy told me that his place uses a different (older) machine from the one Jiffy Lube uses and there are times that people will fail twice at Jiffy Lube and come to him and pass his... so again, gullible me, I gave him another $40, and it failed even worse... so apparently with my car, the hotter it was, the worse off the test was.. BOTH sets of failing numbers were CONSIDERABLY worse. (and again, the NO was fine he said.)

 

Removeing the air cleaner (filter) is one of those "every little bit helps" things, if you are close. The theory being less restriction = more air.

Your NOx numbers are low because rotaries have low compression, therefore low combustion temps, and therefore don't dissociate the atmospheric nitrogen to make nox, so your cat may be toast.

Have you checked your timing? Too much advance will contribute to high HC.

 

Well, again, my NOx numbers passed in normal limits... he said my cat was fine. It's the CO and HC numbers that are the problem... Again, 84, GSL, no mods, carb'd not FI.

 

rig the acv so that it is port air all the time, i had to hold a vacuum pump on the 2 acv vacuum lines (switching and relief) to get my 83 to pass. just doing that dropped the co from 3 to .4-5

 

If the CO is high, the ACV has blown one of its diaphragms or your carb is out of tune...it can only be tuned for CO while it's on the sniffer....