Background of car:
RB header to resonator and piped back
Air Pump Delete
ACV block off
Rats nest removed
Carb stripped

Got pulled over today by Ministry of Environment (Ontario) and was asked if my car was emissions compliant. Popped the hood and was issued a ticket for $385 and repair order instead of having my plates pulled. Ont Reg 361/98 subsection 7(3).

My question is, what is actually needed for the repair? I understand I need to be running a cat (having it installed). But with no emissions testing where I live what exactly needs to be replaced? Air pump and all?

 

Need to put it back to factory exhaust (Factory exhaust manifold, cat, presilencer, muffler). Also need air pump. Might as well put all the emissions back on (rats nest).

 

Ugh.... Thats BS.... Just emailed the MoE officer and asked what is required - air pump needs to be replaced as well.

Anybody have a factory exhaust?

 

Seems to be two issues here.

1) Passing emissions test, which is the intention of the law

and

2) Maintaining original equipment, which is how ignorant people interpret the law.

If the standard were simply passing emissions, which is the way we did it the last time I lived in one of those zones, that's easy.

Clean up your act (fresh plugs, good tuning) and then before the test, lean out the carb and make sure it's well up to operating temp before going in.

If, on the other hand, you are dealing with ignorant people, they could have you jumping through hoops.

In which case I'd sell the car, it looks and sounds like a really nice GSL worth some good money.

 

If they're just doing a visual check and there's no testing you possibly could put a gutted cat behind the header and run a gutted air pump with the air hoses in place. I use a gutted air pump just to keep tension on the water pump pulley.
I have no experience with "the Royal Canadian mounted police" maybe some other Canadian rotor heads can offer better advise.

 

It was a visual roadside inspection, crawled under it and say there was no cat. Asked for me to pop the hood and waited at the front of the car (silly man). Noticed there was no air pump and his partner wanted to yank my plates. Told him I would fix it, he gave me 14 days.

I think Im just going to slap a cat into the exhaust and route the hose to it. However, can the air pump be ran without going through the ACV before going into the exhaust, pre-cat?

 

I did that years ago, ran the air hose into the cat to actually pass an emissions test back when they had them here in FL.
I was worried that the cat (bought new just to pass the test) would get too hot with the air pumping into it continuously so right after the test I cut the belt off.
If you're going through all the trouble you may want to use the ACV and whatever part/s in the rats nest control it.

 

If you at least make it look like you've complied with the repair order, as Stevan is suggesting, it may be enough to satisfy them, this always worked pretty well down here in the SE US.

But totally refitting the cats and emissions to make it functional would be much more of a challenge and expense. The only way to know for sure what the inspector will be looking for is to bring it in and hope for the best (or maybe give them a call first?).

If you haven't already done so, you may want to check to see if there are exemptions in your area for older cars, as is the case in many if not most of the states. This makes sense from the pollution perspective, since the number of older cars on the road is too small to make a significant contribution to overall air pollution and these cars are driven for relatively few miles by enthusiasts or folks without much money.

If an exemption is not an option and you want to reinstall your emissions to some extent or another I've got an extra air pump, rat's nest and other emissions parts from an 85 GSL (but no cats, sent these to recycle for big bucks). If you send me a list of what you need I'll send photos first for your approval, then box them up for shipping. I'd only ask that you pay shipping, for some reason when things cross the border they triple the shipping costs.

 

If you live in an area with no emissions, then shouldn't you be exempt from this? Can you plead that
or something to get out of it?

 

yeah you need to see what they say/want before you actually do anything.

 

Ray Green thank you for the offer - i have an air pump sitting from my other 85 that I sold.

Regardless of emission requirements in the area or not any car that was manufactured with a catalytic converter needs one in place. The MoE officer requires that my air pump be returned to the car and in working order and a cat be installed. No mention of Rats Nest, ACV or any other BS...

My question still remains, are there any adverse side effects of running the Air Pump directly into the exhaust without going through the ACV?

 

Catalytic Converter

 

I don't know for sure if it would cause the cat to get too hot and possibly ruin it, but the rotary mechanic that was helping me pass emissions at the time said it might. Since I paid good money for the new cat I didn't want to chance it. I've mentioned this once before in a thread on here and as I recall there was some doubt but no clear answer.

As I said before, if you're going to put a working cat and air pump on it why not put a little more effort in and make it work? Other wise go the gutted route, the hollow cat would be an expansion chamber right at the header exit.

Another thing, an old cat may not actually work (as was my case back in the day so I had to buy a new one), and wouldn't flow as well as newer "high flow" units.

 

Rotaries misfire horribly on decel. That means lots on unburned gas on the cat. On decel, the shutter valve forces all the air/fuel mixture from both primary venturis to the front rotor to try to get it to burn while fresh air is ported to the rear rotor.

I don't think a cat would last very long w/o the ACV and rats nest or Mazda wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to devise these systems.

 

I got those parts if you need them JM, probably in multiple copies. PM for photos, shipping is not free but everything else is.

 

$150 for a new "high flow" cat with tube for the air pump - installed and reusing my old air pump. I will continue down this path until my cat is either plugged or burns out. Then I will go the gutted route.

Ray Green - thank you again for the offer but I will pass. So many great people on the forum wanting to help others out of a jam.

All I need to do is provide receipts of the work done for compliance. A few of my friends have been popped this week due to the blitz by the MoE. All for non-emissions compliance. $365 tickets all around, and fix it letters - I haven't had anyone tell me if plates have been pulled but I was pretty close.

Thanks again for the advice from everyone. My suggesttion to anyone living in a nonemissions area would be just have the peices where they are supposed to be to pass a visual inspection - legally they cant Smog test to see if the car would pass.

 

I have a air pump, and factory exhaust that I don't need since I'm swapping to a T2 engine that you can have, just pay for the shipping. The only problem is the pipe is rusted through by the precats, nothing that a sleeve won't fix.if you want it , let me know

 

Why would the rear rotor need more air if it's already being leaned out?
The ACV diverts air to the exhaust ports, cat, or air box.

I've attached 2 pages from the 1981 RX-7 Training Manual that's on foxed.ca

 

Either way will work. I was remembering the attached page from Kenichi Yamamoto's book "Rotary Engine".
This page shows cat temps w/o the shutter valve working, so a gutted cat might be best for the OP.

 

the ACV air is separate, the shutter valve basically shuts down one rotor on deceleration.

the later rotaries get efi, but still do the one rotor deceleration fuel cut

 

Just curious. What was his excuse for pulling you over? Excessive exhaust sound? Hopefully they aren't just pulling over random RX-7's LOL

 

Excessive fuel and exhaust smell was the primary reason. Then it was all visual from there.