$60, damn I'm getting ripped off!

 

Just in case there's doubt...............I can pass emissions testing in a heartbeat using gasoline and a funtional ACV and catalytic converter. I just noticed that the JackHild59 test (gasoline) is better than mine even though I use E85. Puzzles me a bit.

 

Maybe the S4 is 'dirtier' than the S5 inherently?

 

mine passes on gasoline, its actually cleaner than moms 2003 E320 mercedes

 

maybe I should get mine tested ... its over due (like a year something, lol), but I parked it inside garage so I never got ticket.

not much has changed since last test, so I guess I will still pass.

 

No. I wash and wax it daily and vacuum it out twice a day.

 

I am coming up on inspection this month with a 21yr old factory cat.

Will post pics because I blew yall away last year with ~75psi on each rotor and factory cat. My readings where WAY below baseline.

 

Post up results! Very informative information. I will look up and post my 87 result on the original factory cat and pre cat too.

 

Mine passed recently. 87 with original cats 88k miles. I was a bit surprised actually.

 

I got an unknown mileage stock cat ... not really unknown cuz I got it off a part out car and I think he told me something like 90K ...

it looks pretty clean inside. outside has some rust. I wonder how good it is.

 

mine is the original too, you can't beat the stock cat! its built like a tank, and its actually got a bigger core than the aftermarket ones.

the cat i picked for the 20B was the biggest i could find, for a 7.4L ford truck, and it had 3" in and out, but the core was still slightly smaller than the stocker

 

Here are my annual results-I barely passed.

I took a second chance from the TXDOT on the low speed test.

I guess after 6 years, the cat is finally cooked. Additionally, I did not prepare the car at all. No new plugs, no oil change. I just treated it like a well, a car!

 

I am a little embarrassed to say how I fixed my emissions problems but I have not seen it mentioned so...

I had some rust problems and had to replace my cat. Also my emissions were slowly rising over the years so I suspected the 15 year old JC Whitney cat had reached the end of its life. I waited until just before inspection to get a new one but I went down and failed with an idle HC of 1675 when the New Jersey limit is 220 and CO of 2.49 against a limit of 1.2. I was expecting the new cat to solve everything but it did not.

I was thinking of connecting my air pump straight to the cat but the advice on this thread leads me to think that port air is more important than split air at idle so I double checked the ACV.

It turns out I had 2 vacuum hoses reversed. I thought all three vacuum nipples on the front of the intake manifold were the same but they are not.

The top bigger nipple is for the oil injectors, the middle nipple is for the cold start assist, and the bottom nipple should connect to the rats nest pipe.

If you reverse the two lower vacuum hoses the ACV will bypass all the air out the waste muffler. None of the air will go to the ports or the cat. It's an easy mistake to make because the two hoses look very similar and I thought the two nipples were the same so it didn't matter which was which.

Once I put the vacuum hoses back where they belonged, my emissions dropped to almost zero with a HC of 0 and a CO of .01.

I wish I had noticed the vacuum hose reversal during the last inspection because I finally gave up, assumed it was the rusted out hole in the cat injection pipe, and paid someone to look the other way.

If anybody can point to a drawing or picture labeling all the vacuum nipples with their correct purpose, that would be a real help. The drawings in the manual actually are not exactly correct and it's difficult to track down what everything does and where everything belongs. I accidentally reversed the two vacuum hoses without noticing it. My car is a track car but still street legal so I need to be able to take everything apart often and get them back to the right places.

I don't drive the car on the street except to test and drive to the track and once the racing season starts, the cat and all the emissions stuff has to come off. I am pretty sure the cat would melt during a 4 hour enduro.

 

The truly stupid thing about Texas emissions is that only a handful of counties require it.
I live 40 miles from Austin and I have never had a cat on my '90 vert or had to pass an emissions test.

By the time we ever have this in my county may car will be "exempt" due to it's status as an "antique auto"

 

My '90 is due for inspection at the end of the month. It passed fine last year with the new cat from the year before, with no prep. Hopefully it'll do so again. Will post results.

 

Time for a new cat. My beloved Marimont 38734 is cooked and no longer available.

http://imco.innovativelogic.com/Part....aspx?ID=26868

Heading to Summitracing.com to spec out a new one.

 

Bah. My '90 failed this past weekend. HCs too high, go figure. 294 and 342 high and low respectively. Everything else passed with flying colors - well, CO just under, but almost no Nox, comparatively.
They also had a lot of trouble getting a consistent tach reading. The thing seems to run fine, but I wonder if my spark is going nuts. I do get a little hesitation now and again. New MSD wires, may need to take a look at the coils, ignitors, and CAS. Tach in the car is steady.
Magnaflow cat is two years old. I'd expect it to last longer, but may also be an issue?
Dang it. I can't even get the car in the driveway at the moment to work on it - the city is re-doing the curbs on my street.

 

Sounds a bit like the converter is bad and or the ACV isn't doing what it should be doing and possibly the 02 sensor is not doing it's job.

I'd back probe the 02 sensor at the ECU and drive the car and see if the reading from it is worthwhile or not. Should be jumping on either side of approx 0.4 vdc at a steady cruise speed and at idle IF the ACV is working right the reading should be close to 0 vdc (means the airpump air is passing thru the ACV and going to the exhaust port which are located prior to the 02 sensor (diluting the mixture).

During the same idle if you remove the Blue connector of the Relief solenoid (non turbo car here) then the 02 should read approx 0.8vdc which would mean the ACV is indeed working right.

On a series four turbo instead of pulling the Blue elect plug you'd go to the ACV and pull the line off the nipple that sticks straight up on the ACV and plug that line and the 02 sensor output would be, like on the non turbo car, around 0.8vdc proving the ACV is doing its job.

02 sensors on this car don't contribute to the running of the engine til a speed of approx 1500-1700 rpm is atained. That's why USUALLY the high speed test will show a lower reading than the low speed test does.

Prior to writing this I did not notice if you have a turbo or non turbo car.

IF non turbo.............idle the car fully hot. Pull the LARGE hose off the side of the ACV. Feel the air coming out the large nipple where the hose was. Now reach over to the left side of the engine and pull the blue elect plug off the Relief solenoid. When you do that, the air coming out the large nipple just mentioned should blow a LOT harder out that nipple. IF it does then I'd say the ACV is functioning and the problem lies in the converter or possibly the 02 senors output not getting to the ECU.

 

Guess what? I found it! This puppy lasted nearly 6 years on my 90 Vert.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/IMO-38734/

 

My car is NA.
Thanks, I'll check that stuff. That I can do even if I can't get in the driveway. The O2 and cat are both right at 2 years old, and I'll be severely disappointed in Magnaflow if the cat is Tango Uniform,but hey, Jack found the one that worked for him for years for only slightly more than I paid for the Magnaflow on eBay, as I recall, if it does need to be replaced.
I would like to figure out that erratic ignition issue, too, though - they let the dang thing sit and idle while they fiddle around trying to get a clear reading.
I believe I have another CAS and a leading coil somewhere in my spares.

Erg, only two more years after this one...

 

Are they using an inductive pickup? My shop has trouble with the type that clamps on the wire. They succeed in using a T-shaped inductive pickup that lays literally on top of the aluminum hood. some guys have put it under the hood, but that is more troublesome.

 

best thing about being in the middle of No where Texas NO SMOG!!!! oh aand cheap insurance

 

I second that, I couldn't even tell you you what the procedure is for a smog test.

 

Yep, clamp-on inductive pickup, but the one that sits on the hood/dash/whatever was having trouble too.
I just spent a few hours puttering around with it, and I'm having trouble getting a good reading with my Stinger digital dial-back timing light, too. Swapped leading coil and CAS, since I had one of each hanging around, and the timing still jumps. Not just the timing light, though, I can feel the stumble. I even swapped ECUs, since I have a second one that throws a check engine light for the internal barometric pressure sensor, but is otherwise fine. Same problem. Checked the negative trigger lead of the coil with the freq counter on my multimeter and it really is all over the place.
I'm thinking that if my ignition is misfiring all over the place, that would not help my HCs.
Looking back, it's been over two years and 17K miles since I changed plugs, so I bet those are worn out. I'll swap in new ones before I do anything drastic. Trailing, BTW, seems to be reasonably steady. Spark plug cables are MSD 8.5mm Super Conductors, right at a year old. those shouldn't be a problem, but a new set of NGK wires is only about $35 at Mazdatrix, $24 at O'reilly's, if they can order them. Website's a bit ambiguous.
I wonder if I should go hotter with BUR6EQ and BUR8EQ rather than 7s and 9s. Mazdatrix recommends those for "city", but I'm not certain that the Metroplex fits they're definition of city. Hmm, better stick with the 7s and 9s - I do enough highway driving, I think.

 

Nuts, failed again. New plugs (thought for sure this was it - the old plugs were two years old and 18K miles old. The center electrode on the leadings was a nub) and adjusted timing (it was just a bit advanced.) Spark is still erratic but better, according to my timing gun on the leading, but steady on the trailing. Swapped in another leading coil and ECU I had on hand with no change.
Air valve worked as Hailers described, and the O2 readings were close to what he says above (I have them written down, but not at hand.)
Dumped a gallon of alcohol in the almost half-full tank just to see what would happen. In retrospect, I should have gone and gotten several gallons of E85 - it would have been cheaper ($15/gal at HD. E85 is close to regular gasoline.)

This time around, the HCs went down 168/238 fast and 173/261 low (standard/tested.) Interestingly, the CO also failed this time: 1.08/1.24 and 0.98/1.15. It was just under last time.

The handy dandy chart here says that would be Rich Air Fuel ratio, air injection.
Any opinions? I'm thinking I killed the cat with the bad plugs letting too much fuel pass from misfires, but what the heck do I know?
Any opinions?
I effing hate emissions, but only because it's something that I can't test before taking it in. I don't mind them being there and working so much, but I have to spend $50 to find out if I fixed them...
This time around I think I may just have a shop work on it until they hit the $$ limit and then get a waiver if it still doesn't pass.