i failed my inspection for the 3rd time. i ran this time on denatured alcohol and it did help it lowered my hydrocarbons by over 25 bringing me within 100 of passing. i am so pissed, i thought for sure running denatured alcohol would make me pass. crap

 

Slide em' some cash...that's how I pass in HI

 

Werd, thats what I did too.

 

people say it like its so easy. here (dont know about elsewhere) its supposedly up to 7 years in prison and some god awful fine for illegal inspections.

not to be rude, but your thread isnt helpful unless you post useful information. if youre asking for help, you definately need to post every variable imaginable (or search emissions threads); if youre just telling a story, it still helps to add quite a few variables for those wanting to run alcohol. for all we know, you ran a teaspoon on a car with no air pump.

in order to help, it would help if people knew the year of car, what cat youre running and how new it is, if the air pump is hooked up, how the car runs, if you have a working ACV, if the car is turbo or non, and definately your emissions numbers. are you getting a check engine light, pulling any codes, premixing?

i posted a bit of my story (still working on passing emissions myself) in the 2nd gen and south lounge forums; thread is "failed emissions; a rotary journey." i may be hooking up my safc today. wish i had a dyno to tune with.

 

It's not hard to pass (on an N/A anyways) if you know how to be creative. I passed with 1 main high flow bonez cat, an airpump, no ACV, no EGR, no vac rack (rats nest) and running 12 ounces of premix per 11 gallons of gas. How'd I do it? Here:

1. Put cat in with split air pipe hooked up
2. Buy heater hose big enough to fit on the airpump outlet and split air pipe inlet.
3. Run heater hose from airpump directly to split air pipe bypassing the ACV. This will run air into the cat constantly and at a higher rate which will help emissions vastly.
4. If you have an S-AFC lean it out as much as possible at idle to where the car still runs within the rpm range you need to for the test. If you do not have an S-AFC turn the variable resistor to FULL LEAN and then lower your idle via the screw on top of the dynamic chamber AND/OR the throttle stop screw on the back of the TB to as low as you can where your car still starts/runs fine and is within the acceptable range. For my test my idle was at 510rpm.

I passed with 85 HC and 0.02 CO% at idle and 74 HC with 0.01 CO% at cruise. I tried passing before with all emissions equip (acv, egr, vac rack, air pump) and the bonez high flow cat and failed miserably. Then all of a sudden hooking the air straight to the cat allowed me to pass with flying colors.

If you run all emissions all the time, just bypass the ACV and hook it to the split air pump, then plug the ACV. Also if you run all emissions all the time, this setup CAN HARM YOUR CAT if you run it with this much air for too long. Prolonged use with that much air hooked straight up to the cat is not good for it. Do this only for the test and then take it off as soon as you get home. Me, I put the cat/airpump in for a grand total of an hour so I could drive it there. Got home, took it all off.

 

remember dDub, not all emissions tests are the same. here we test 15mph and 25mph.
also, i have no ACV, air pump hooked straight to new catco cat, and slightly ported engine. i'm still working on passing. i've failed a few times (only paid once, though). i have my s-afc i need to get hooked up. wish i had a wideband. =/
good job passing, though. wish i could get those numbers. i have a check engine light issue which i'm also trying to resolve. maybe thats causing me to fail, but for a couple of reasons i sort of slightly doubt it.

 

Passing emissions could be very hard with a ported engine.... The problem is that there may be some blow by from the rotor passing the intake port before the exhaust port is fully closed by the following apex.

Dunno if that's your exact problem, but low compression can add to hydrocarbon emissions as well due to intake air getting by the rotors and into the exhaust stream.

 

Just for what it's worth...............Just talking about the emission tests done in Texas where they put the car on rollers and check at two speeds (15mph and 25mph I think). The ACV will be wide open feeding airpump air to the catalytic converter ALL the time during these two tests.

I'd like to say **** the SPLIT AIR PIPE! There. Said it. I feel better now.

Normally at idle and low speeds, the air from the airpump goes to the ACV which in turn feeds that air through passages in the engine block/irons/rotor housing/whatever directly to a hole in each exaust port.

There is where the air is introduced to the exaust gasses from the engine. This is prior to the 02 sensor, and you'll find that this mixed fresh air and exaust gas is close to the 14.7 ideal mixture (observed with a wideband). The catalytic converter IMHO works most efficiently when a gas mixture of this ratio is introduced to it. I read that somewhere and decided to believe it. It works for me. It makes sense.

The Split Air Pipe on a normal car sends and anemic (sp?) amount of air to the catalytic converter.

And yes, I know quite a few people have stated on this forum how they used the airpump/split air pipe/alchohol etc to pass. I've no doubt they did. At the same time it take but thirty minutes to install a three nut acv (with checkvalve) and install the hose to it. A lack of solenoids might put you further off the pace......but if you ran a constant vacuum source to each of the two nipples above the acv, air would always go to the exaust ports and not dump overboard at the bottom of the acv. Just an idea.

 

Are you premixing?

I tuned for 14.8, on a ported 13BT, no emissions whatsoever. On a 3inch DP, high flow magnaflow cat, and premis. If you are premixing, instead of 100:1 mix, do 50:1, and on a 1/4 tank of fuel, add 2.25 gallons of alcohol.

 

True, for that kind of test no tweaking of the idle is necessary since it won't do anything. But I still stand by what I said to help pass.

If you have an SAFC tune below 3000rpms for like -15 or more correction. Then take the car out and see how it runs like that, if it falls on its face easily obviously put some fuel back in. This is all assuming you have an N/A, for TII's I really wouldn't suggest this.

In 2 years I'll be back at the emissions testing with a heavily ported intake and exhaust motor and possibly my turbo'd n/a block, though I think I'd take it off for the test for easier tuning and less fuel needed, and I still believe I'll pass.

Also I forgot to mention when I passed with those numbers I had a TII fuel pump as well.

 

just show up and tell them ur the 2008 OLYMPIC HOPEFUL
TWO TIME NATIONAL CHAMPION...and if they'd help u out u'd thank them on national TV.....

 

here is more info

engine rebuilt by rotary performance
new 02 sensor from autozone about 6 months ago or 10k ago
bonez superflow cat
intake
spark plugs about 10k ago
wires about 10k ago
about 2 years on the rebuild and 22k on the rebuild
full catback borla exhaust
i premix due to a faulty omp 100:1i premixed for the test because i thought i needed to with alcohol
i ran a half gallon of denatured alcohol with probably a half gallon of gas... i waiteed until my gas ran low enough that when i turned my car almost died.
my air pump is hooked up

that should be enough info

 

1-Empty your gas tank
2-Premix 50:1
3-Fill gas tank up to 1/4
4-Add 2 gallons of denaturated alcohol

That's how I passed on the 2nd try, on the first try I was premixing 100:1, and 1 gallon of alcohol in 1/2 tank of gas.

BTW - DO NOT push the engine under this circumstances!!

 

I failed the Texas test. I have a completely stock na. I had a new Cat put on for $175, drove the **** out of it for 20 minutes, went back and passed. No alcohol, no tricks.