The car is an 88 TII, Fresh motor with 90psi compression on both rotors cold. Runs and drives awsome. No noticable smoke, makes good power, idles steady at 1000rpm once warm.

Mods
-SAFC
-2.5" exhaust with two long nose magnaflow cats.
-Emissions removal
-A/F and boost guages

Recently i installed two brand new magnaflow cats, checked ignition timing, replaced spark plugs and attempted to lean out my mixture a little bit with the SAFC. I am still failing the etest on HC and CO.

I've had it tested three times, first with no SAFC and an old cat. Failed by 4x the limit on everything.

Second test was teh best, i installed one magnaflow cat and leaned out the mixture a little bit with the SAFC. Failed by 100 hc on idle.

Third test i leaned it out even more on idle, and added another cat. I failed on everything this time but i didnt use any methyl hydrate.

What can i do here? Maybe i am not setting the safc properly? Can anyone give me some guidlines on what they would do next if they were in my position?

Thanks,
Brandon

 

I assume you have no air pump right?

You need an air pump, i think corvettes use eletri ones, you could use one of those i imagine.

 

not trying to sound rude, but you really need to find a mechanic who will pass you if you dont work at a shop yourself. Rotaries are well known for bad emissions

 

Put back the air pump and emissions. Pass the test and remove it afterwards.

 

You need to have a cat with an air tube. I believe that the cat is called a three-way catalytic converter; the air being injected into the cat via an air pump allows for a better catalyst reaction. Any GM car with an LT1/LS1 has an electric air pump that flows a pretty good amount of air. Be sure to have the cat installed as close to the engine as possible, and before you go to get the emissions test drive the hell out of the car for like 30 min to get the cat super hot. You also want to try to take the test without letting the cat cool down, so if there is a line keep driving around until the line goes down.

 

Come across the river and get you ride registered in Michigan..........No emissions testing here for over ten years.

 

air pump being out is what's causing your issues.

 

hmmm... you removed your emissions and air pump and are wondering why you cant pass?

 

Quick fix, move to a state with no emissions! Makes it easy for me :P

 

As it has been stated already, you need the air pump. I also have a magnaflow high flow cat, and it has the port for the air pump; since you removed all of the emissions equipment, go ahead and hook up the air pump directly to the cat's air pump port.

I normally drive to the station, and wait on line; in my case the cat does not have to be EXTREMELY hot in order to pass the test.

 

The cats that i have inline never had a spot for the air line to hook the pump up to. In this case, were should i hook the airpump up to? i can weld an air pipe into the ehxaust and/or into the front nose of the converter, what do you guys think?

Anyone familiar with using the SAFC to pass etest?

thanks,
brandon

 

if you failed by 100hc and it got worse when you leaned it out, try richening it. cats like it a little rich

 

Soooo........ you took off your emissions equipment and you're confused why you failed emissions testing?

 

+1 for the airpump

the cat will cool off too quickly without a smog pump unless you run it through quick after doing some hard driving.

too lean of a mixture at idle will cause HC levels to rise so having it severely lean and misfiring will not be doing you any favors, try richening it up a tiny bit until the engine has a slight misfire but not a lump idle. adding more cats is not the answer, it can actually cause your emissions to increase as you already noticed, one good cat with a smog pump is all you really need. when i bought my car it had 3 cats on it... and failed, i put a single 3" Bonez on it and it passed with flying colors.

 

Thats what it says....

However, i was told that much of the emissions equiptment had little or no effect on actual emmisions(with the exception of air pump and cat) . Many people have passed with a little fine tuning and some methyl hydrate.

So i will install the airpump and lean the idle out a little more, is it better to ask the tech to run the 40 km/h test in 3rd?


Thanks,
brandon

 

Emission shops have a little camera which looks for rotaries and immediately sets the computer to fail the car. It's science, and a true fact.

 

Damn, I never had a problem passing! I just passed last month with a downpipe, one Magnaflo cat and RP Performance exhaust.

 

Plain and simple you need an airpump. You probably don't even need to lean it out anymore.

I passed IL smog using a $65 autozone cat and a LS1 airpump(on ONLY for the 20 seconds of the test). With a horrible rich SAFCII tune. No other emmisions equipment on the car, no alcohol in the tank, and 93 octane premium gas.

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/%2Aupdate%2A-street-ported-tii-swapped-vert-il-smog-resluts-%2Apics%2A-515579/

 

Ok guys, thanks for the advice. I picked up some 3/4" gas pipe (at the home depot) and although that seems pretty budget i think i will use it. Reason being that i can use the threaded 90 and weld it into the nose on the cat, and remove the rest of the pipe and air pump afterwords and plug up the 90 with a threaded fitting. I will bend/ weld the 3/4" pipe so that i can run the air pump strait to it with a couple of feet of hose.

This way next year all i will have to do is remove the plug and install the pipe/air pump.

One more queston, i have two magnaflow cats on there now, should i plumb the air line into the first cat so that they are both getting the fresh air from the pump, or only into the second one? (this would simulate having a precat, wich normally would not get the fresh air from the pump)

Let me know what you guys think, thanks for all the help.


brandon

 

Sorry, it was a rhetorical question. Just ignore it...

 

let us know how you made out in your test..

 

stop leaning it out, it doesnt quite work like that. cats actually like to see a slightly rich mixture.

b the factory puts the air pump air into the exhaust ports, so its AHEAD of the cats. this works the best.

i live in CA and have had no trouble getting RX7's to pass smog for more than a decade....

 

Ok, too late i got going on it this morning and welded the air pipe for the air pump just before the second cat. Now i have one air'd and one not. I cant imagine this will be too bad/cause much trouble since the stock precat is right off the turbo...

i had my afc -12% leaner with stock injectors at anything under 40% throttle in an attempt to lean it out. I have now re-adjusted them all to -5% just to lean it out a little. I am running stock injectors.

I adjusted my idle to "ideal(slightly to the rich side on my crappy afr guage)" with the mixture screw on the passenger side shock tower.

Last thing i plan on doing is getting about 10L of 87 oct and adding a litre of methyl(sp??) hydrate. I usually run 94 in the car so i will take it out for a good hard rip with the 94 octane, and as i am about to pull into the testing area i will dump in the regular gas/methyl hydrate cocktail.

Oh, i am going to change the oil again too just incase there is any gasoline contamination.


What else can give me an edge??

Thanks everyone
brandon

 

spark plugs and air filter.

 

This might not be a great idea considering that you have leaned out the mix a bit. Before trying this cocktail I would go through with the car the way it is now. I bet you will pass since you added the air pump.