Smogging a 2nd Gen
 

hi. i just recently bought a 87 Turbo II and was wondering if anyone else has had any problems smogging them. If so, what was the problem and the solution to it? hopefully someone will have the same issue and will be able to help

2 of my cats were completely empty, and it failed the HC portion (not too badly though). Replaced them, and it easily passed. That's with a bad O2 sensor and bad EGR valve

See FAQ.

I've found that the air pump is the key to passing; Having air injected into the cat cut my numbers by over 50%.

That is because a monolithic cat has two stages, one that cleans up the HC and one the cleans up the NO and CO, and the cat needs the extra Ox to make the 2nd stage work.

I passed with a low miles, high flow cat, air pump straight to it, and disconnceted wastegate rod.

I was in the middle of smogging my 2nd gen, and though that I wanted to maximize the smogging effect, so I took off the catalectic converter off and put in a test pipe, now its fully smogged, shit even pops flames.

Hope you don’t have a moral dilemma like I did about the environment, ground level ozone and all.

Good luck!

My smog results -

1st Attempt: HC - 1800 CO - 5.0 NO - passed

Replaced the (leaking) intake gasket.

2nd Attempt: HC - 1200 CO - 4.something NO - still passed.

The car is running extremely rich, the exhaust reeks of gasoline, but it runs well.

I'm going to take it to a smog repair place soon, and hopefully the problem is something simple like sticky fuel injectors, but the car is supposedly street-ported so it might just be a lost cause. If I can't get it to pass smog I'm registering as non-op and selling.

To the OP, not to be a jerk, but this would be a great subject to do a search on. It has been frequently discussed in detail, with discussions often correlating the area of test failure with the part of your emissions system which needs repair. Common issues are a failed cat, failed air pump, old O2 sensor... There are numerous claims for ways to cheat the smog test using denatured alcohol and other tricks, though I've always preferred to just have my emissions stuff working properly on my daily driver.

Of course it is always advisable to do a full tuneup (new plugs in particular) and make sure the car is fully warmed up prior to the test if possible, which it not always is if you'll be waiting in line for your turn to test. I usually try to go for my test at an unpopular hour to make sure my cats will be nice and hot when I drive in.