j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

maybe a little, in theory advancing a little will get the mixture burning sooner... high HC is either too rich or too lean

http://www.team-integra.net/images/B...fSmogChart.jpg

kel

that's a great chart. I can see that where I'm at now, I could be running NOX up.

.

StevenL5975

Yes, great chart I have one too here. If that would be my car I would put in normal gas and tune it to AFR 14,7 - 15 and see what happens.
Catalytic converters work best when at or near stoichiometric mixture. Of course the cat needs to be hot to do the job.

When I proceed to tune my haltech there is a shop who will let me use their emissions equipment for a few bucks

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

it's actually very easy with the microtech ECU.

go to screen 30 and scroll down until you come to a function called "Mixtrm", this function is a blanket enrichment or leaning out tool which covers all fuel maps. bump it up to about 30% and see how the engine is running while your fuel is diluted or replaced with ethanol completely. if the car is stumbling continue to bump the figure up until it seems happy. this figure is based off your initial pump gas maps, untouched.

it can also be used if you are upping injector sizes linearly, but i prefer to just remap and keep this set to 0%.

this is all based on the fact that ethanol contains about 60-70% energy content when compared to pump gas. it will not be exact but it should be close. pure ethanol also has an octane rating of about 120RON versus 91RON pump gas(premium). you could theoretically push well over 50psi of boost(most turbos crap out at 15-20psi though) on pure ethanol without a hint of knock versus 18psi on premium.

and that is why people are flocking to E85(while in most cases it still contains 30% pump gas).

kel

Ah. Yes, I know that screen, just didn't make the connection.

Off to the test tomorrow!

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kel

Here's my update:

Ran the gas down till the gauge needle was just touching the E, poured in two gallons of ethanol, Adjusted the OptTrmMix and dialed in an extra 10% to make it run fairly normal. Then hit the freeway and went to the test.

Finally......PASSED!!!!!

Just barely on the HC, but hey, miss is as good as a mile, right?

Millions and Millions of thanks to everyone! RX7 Club comes through once again!


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misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

so...I guess you do need alcohol to pass emissions..It's damn stressful!
Congratulations!

kel

Thanks!

I should restate a point I made early in this thread. It's important to me, living in Colorado, that I be able to pass the test every day. I was here when the air was worse than L.A. (I understand that the altitude here exacerbates auto pollution) in the '70s and it's no question that emissions requirements fixed a problem; it was absolutely horrible. One of those rare (almost non-existent) times when gov't actually got it right.

So, please don't take my situation to mean you can't pass without this trick. I've done it several times with a stock setup (been driving stock FCs since 1988, been living in a emissions-testing state since 1995).

That's an important point - stock. If you're running the original system, and you make all the parts - cat, air pump, Air Control Valve (ACV), Bypass Air Control valve (BAC) and all the related solenoid valves - work as they're supposed to, you will pass. (In the past, I've had to replace ACV on one car, and the cat on another; things to consider.)


My car is far from stock;

Atkins Rotary Street Port
Racing Beat Turbo-back exhaust
Walbro fuel pump
RCEngineering injectors (550cc/720cc)

...and most importantly...Microtech LTX Engine Control Unit

I'm still learning how to tune this system and don't have it down yet.

Urgency came when my daily-driver (an old Pathfinder) died and wasn't economically repairable. Being out of steady work, buying a replacement isn't feasable right now either. I don't suppose I need to go into what a royal PITA it is not having your own car. So, I HAVE to get this car street legal for easy transportation (gotta get to those job interviews somehow).

So, don't stress, my friend. Read up on these links, search for more on your own and you can make it through. The answers are all on this site.

The MAZDA RX-7 86-88 technical page

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...7/#post5131106

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...sting-1000173/

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...r-load-753813/

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...d-help-961067/

RX7Club.com - Search Results


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j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i've lived in CA my whole life, and i've had to smog every Rx7 i've ever owned, which is about 20 cars, and with the stock systems in place and WORKING, these cars run really clean.

i have a presmog check, and its super easy. i check the TPS, and then i reach under the front bumper and make sure no air is coming out of the relief hose, and call it good. occasionally i check timing.

Brigdh

iTrader: (9)

Actually its the mountains that tend to make the emissions stick around ("screws" with the weather patterns). Also many other things have taken effect as well, such as burn ban days and severely reducing the amount of sand thrown on the road for snow (although mag-cloride eats cars, so...).

The emissions program in CO gets audited every 5 years or so, and the last audit just came in with a recommendation that the program be axed.

Wms10th

iTrader: (2)

This what I do when mine fails, which it did only once since 1997, when Kali went to the dyno system and we put the emissions equipment back on.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

it seems like 99% of the cars on the roads are OBDII which just needs someone to look for a check engine light periodically...

kel

That's interesting and good to know; I was told (though admitedly, I didn't probe any further) that the particles can only rise to about 5000 feet due to density of air, so here it has nowhere to go. Guess the one I heard from was a BSer - which wouldn't really surprise me. Anyway, I'll never forget what it was like. (BTW, were you here then? no challenge, just curious)

One thing, how does sand contribute? Blowing dust? I'd skoff on that one, due to the near dead calm of the majority of days (I say majority because I'm also very familair with the 90mph Chinook).

It's encouraging to hear about the audit. If they could axe it and maintain the clean air, I would APPLAUD the action. Can't imagine whatever union is involved would 'go quietly into the night', though.

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RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

at least now you have time to poke around with things to see what is the root cause of the excessive emissions. i would check the timing under load since it appears to be a dyno roller test.

my initial suggestions didn't account for a dyno test so engine RPMs/map load at which the test is performed are important to know. some decent highway tuning will also help clean it up, leaning out the mixtures until the engine responds decently but doesn't begin to jerk due to a lean misfire. the key is watching your engine RPMs and map sensor figures while driving and looking at the maps to see if they are smooth in each RPM range up and down from it as well as leaned out to the above scenario.

making adjustments in all maps below 0psi are perfectly safe, but keep backups of your starting points in case you make some large adjustments that screw with how well the car runs. even if that means writing the figures down manually(this is where microtech starts to blow ***, since you can only save 4 maps internally with no way of saving to disk externally).

kel

Yes, now the pressure is off. Going to get tags Monday first thing, then get to work on the next decent day (snowing at the moment).

How would I check timing under load? you don't mean with a timing light, do you?

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RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

check your base timing by turning the timing lock to on, then time the engine off the yellow leading mark on the pulley, if you assumed the timing was already set since the CAS was stabbed and set properly with the stock ECU it will NOT be set correctly to base with the microtech.

from there it is just a matter of seeing what figures you have for your cruising timing. at say 3k-3500RPMs timing can be as high as 35-40 degrees of advance in the 10-15"Hg range.

kel

I did the timing setup first thing after repairing a bunch of small stuff and re-working the fuel supply, so I'm sure that it set right. There was some other ignition problem going on, and I re-checked it during that troubleshooting (there is another thread I started about that).

I'll fire the car up in a bit and put the laptop on to see where it's at.

Thx for the prompt!

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Brigdh

iTrader: (9)

Pretty much what the audit concluded

I was not here at the time, I moved to CO a couple of years ago but I've done quite a bit of research as the whole collector plate situation in Colorado continues to **** me off.

Sand contributes though dust. When you are putting down some kind of media on all of the roads, you buy in bulk, and generally not **** about the quality, so the sand that got thrown down tended to vary greatly in particle size. Also it gets tossed into the air to spread it out fairly evenly, so the dust that is mixed in essentially gets blown right into the wind.

kel

I see. I suppose that would contribute to the visual 'Brown Cloud' of old. However, it was definitely auto pollunants (and related industrial products) that were the worst. I recall a late January trip to the mountains where I returned via Morrison road. Between Kittiridge and Idledale, you could actually see the air getting a blue tint and by the time I reached Morrison, it actually burned my eyes. The smell was atrocious. Haven't seen anything like that in the last decade-plus.

So, what's up with the Collector tag? I've seen those in every state I've lived in. just curious (once again).

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Brigdh

iTrader: (9)

Nearly every state has a 15 or 25 year rolling requirement for collector plates. Ie if you are in a 15 year state, and your vehicle is 15 years old, you can get collector plates which usually means you are exempt from emissions. In general this makes sense because typically 70%+ of the vehicles do not qualify as they are newer than the age requirement, and usually the ones that do are show cars that are rarely driven. Some states even mandate that daily drivers (usually more than X number of miles per year) do not qualify.

Colorado has collector plates and it used to be a 15 year requirement if I recall correctly, but back in 2009 the law was changed at the request of Air Care Colorado (the emissions testing monopoly that wanted more money by testing more vehicles) so that only 1975 model year and older vehicles can get collector plates (newer vehicles that already had collectors plates were grandfathered in, so long as the registration never lapsed, and the vehicle was never sold). This excludes all RX-7s, and the law is likely never to change.

In my opinion the hearings showed that the whole change was political because the actual additional funds were basically nothing (some studies suggested it would be a net loss due to the additional effort to test older vehicles) and many interest groups were denied from presenting their case against the change.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

The dust in CO air has little to do with sanding roads during winter, the primary cause is the Midwest.
Having been under severe drought for several years, it's just blowing west to us.

That, combined with the millionfold increase in fracking pollutants- basically unregulated- and the tremendous increase in heavy truck activity that accompanies the drilling, accounts for far more pollutants than an army of rotary engines.

kel

Ah. I understand...and completely agree. Their monopoly is something that pisses me off as well; can't tell me that politics isn't pushing it. I, too, am pissed that I can't get collector plate for my 10th AE - although if I was aware of the grandfather clause in '09, I could've gotten in - I'd just bought mine.

so, I'm with ya.

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kel

That would be my belief. The switch to Mag Chloride is something that pisses me off. We don't need that here 99% of the time because 99% of the snowstorms are followed by blazing sun the next day and the snow/ice burns off the roads by midday. If we get less than 8" today, you're going to work tomorrow.

I think that just sanding the intersections when the snow quits would suffice and we wouldn't have the chemicals burning up our cars and trashing the lakes/streams. (again, like we did in the '70s)

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kel

What screen we talking about? Would that be 23 - T-RPM? If so, I have +36 from 1500 - 9000

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RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

TimRpm and TimMap, both will be cross checking each other. sounds like you have a pretty steep RPM map and are pulling more from vac/boost, which is still fine.

you can also just watch your timing while driving on the displays to get an idea of what it's doing and when and then looking at those 2 tables to see where they correlate with each other.

easiest way of understanding it is taking your RPM timing map and using that as your base. now figure what vacuum you are running at that RPM and then subtract or add that figure in your TimMap table from the RPM table(RPM table is pretty flatlined) and you will have the timing that the engine is using at that point. so say you're running 10" Hg cruising at 3500 RPMs, your MAP timing table is set to +10, add that +10 to your 36 and your engine is running 46 degrees of advance(depending on where you have TimMax set, usually it stops at either 35 or 45 degrees of advance by default, fairly sure it is 35 or 40 degrees but i upped mine to 45).