Just had my car smogged today (California) and it failed badly. Extremely high HC and NOx at 15 and 25 mph. I looked at Icemark's emissions chart in the FAQ section which says what should be done. Replace converter, tune up and check lean air fuel ratio, and leaking exhaust valves. Replacing the cat is obvious but I'm not sure what to do about the lean air fuel ratio. I have wideband O2 sensor and it is definately running lean at low rpms. The only mods I have on the car a BNR stage 2 turbo and a bigger top mount intercooler. I also have an Rtec 2.1 set at the stock settings. Stock primary injectors and 720 secondaries. Also I don't understand what is meant by leaking exhaust valves. What valves is he talking about? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

step 1 is to check the TPS, and step 2 is to check the air control valve, if the air injection system isn't working it won't pass

 

Luckily the guy doesn't know enough to fail your visual exam with that bnr turbo

 

I did fail the visual for only having one cat instead of two.

 

Do not quote my exact words on this because I took a smog class 10 years ago. There were 2 types of cat setups
1) If you have one cat per bank on an engine, it is a 3 way cat. 3 way cats take care of HC, CO, and NOX
2) cars with 2 cats per bank usually have an oxidation cat( pre cat) and another one. Haha, sorry I forgot the technical name of the 2nd cat. Each one of those cats does a diferent thing. I believe the pre cat takes care of CO , while the back one takes care of the HC and NOX.

So if the fc uses option #2, or course you wont pass the sniffer test , your only filtering out a portion of the harmful gases. And of course visual is a fail

 

it should pass with just the main cat.

 

I'm sure it could if everything was in tip top shape, but having 1 out of 2 cats, these cars being old, and so many other factors, the other cat would help.

So do these cars run two 3 way cats or oxidation cat and main cat?

I'm also guessing the cat that was removed was the one further downstream

 

the main cat is a 3 way, and the rest of the world FC only had that one. the precat was added in the US, as it lowers emissions on a cold start.

since the precat usually clogs, its usually the one replaced with a down pipe

 

Ahh, good to know. Thanks!

 

I got reffed about 8 years ago with this car and I was able to pass the BAR with the exhaust system I currently have on the car (one cat). The exhaust system has 2.5 inch piping with a single cat with the air pump hose hooked up and working. That is why I'm PO'd that there coming at me with this missing cat BS. The big difference between the the car then and now is the turbo. The old turbo was basically stock except it had a different pitch on the compressor blades and a ported waste gate. I feel that this car should pass smog with the turbo I have on there now since I don't have any other significant mods on the car.

I was able to richen up the lean condition at low rpms by messing with the MAF meter. Moving that spring adjuster just a click or two changes things a lot. I believe this will help me with NOx but since I don't have a sniffer I can't really check anything.

Does anyone in the LA area know of a good shop that knows rotarys that can help me get this thing thru smog?

 

This is exactly why I'd never move to Cancerfornia...

When I bought my car 7 years ago, the pre-cat had exploded and the remnants of it where just sitting in the main cat. I cut it off and replaced it with a straight pipe but kept the main cat because it worked fine, just had to dump all the **** out of it. I always passed the smog test here.

Just like California, we have a severe EPA non-attainment area, but if it passes, it passes.

I sold my main cat a few years ago for damn near $400 to a recycler and tossed on a magnaflow 3 way cat. Passed with a breeze. $400 minus $80 equals PROFIT! It still passed the stringent smog tests we have here.

The whole visual thing blows my mind. Being failed even though the tailpipe emissions are within limits is stupid.

Now that I am exempt from emissions testing in Texas, I get a special license plate designating my car as a classic.

Takes 4-6 weeks for delivery because they are made in the prison.

 

yep! its a real PITA too, especially when the smog guy doesn't know the car very well.

the second problem is that half of the counties in CA have no smog test at all, i find its remarkably unfair that MY smog is worse than everyone else's

the third problem is that all this nonsense is like $60!

 

We have the same thing here man. If I lived 5 miles away, you dont have to do smog. Thankfully my car is now 24+ years old and is exempt.

 

I'm thinking that the hybrid turbo combined with higher flowing exhaust is not matching up well with the stock ECU and MAF. The car runs great but it does backfire on deceleration after I loosened the spring in the MAF sensor. Does anybody know if there is a cheap way to get exhaust gas readings without going to smog station?

 

Stock tune with 720 secondaries is just BEGGING for high HC's . HC's are unburnt fuel. Basically, you're lean at low RPM's which causes the high NOX, then rich at mid-high RPM's which causes high HC's (Yes, they will activate secondaries on the rolling road/dyno when testing most of the time)

You will be lean at lower RPM's because of the BNR turbo. Stock tune, upgraded turbo, 720 secondaries this thing is a disaster and will never pass emissions as - is. You can't just slap on an RTEC and hope it works right, it NEEDS to be adjusted by someone who knows what they are doing.

You have 2 choices:

1: Put on a stock turbo and exhaust to pass.
2: Get the car to a professional tuner that's familiar with using the RTEC fuel correction settings. Sorry, there's no way you can do this yourself.

 

our test isn't like that. they run the car at 15mph, and then a second one at 25mph, so its a steady ~2600rpm in 2nd, and then steady ~2600rpm in 3rd. no load, no boost, no secondaries

 

Been there, done that. California uses a LOADED rolling test. 50% load at 15mph and 25 % load at 25mph.

Boost and possibly secondaries will likely be coming on during this loaded test. They thought of everything.

I'm going to take a wild guess that the emissions systems on the car are totally borked as well. Shouldn't matter with a good tune. Seen it a hundred times on clients cars. AFR's lean on the bottom, fat on the top.

 

California sucks

 

its a steady speed test, and the car is in closed loop the whole time, so again there is no boost, no secondaries

 

A LOADED steady speed test. I usually see 1-3psi boost during them on stock turbos during the 50/15 test.

Anytime there is load, there is fuel enrichment , timing retardation and the turbo will be spooling (though maybe not at full boost)

A lot of people are under the impression that the FC's systems are based on RPM when actually the ECU for the most part makes fuel/timing adjustments based on estimated load.