So I’m getting tired of exhaust smell, not so great AC and not being able to pass emissions.

I just want a car that I can occasionally drive to work, then blast through the backroads and do 2 track days a year. So I don’t really need more than 350 whp.

I think I have 3 options.

Option 1: Revert car back to pretty much stock. Would have SMIC, PFC, HFC, RB exhaust and twin power.

Option 2: 7670 EFR kit and try and run an air pump.

Option 3: Replace mid pipe with a HFC



Option 1 is a lot of work is a lot of work and a lot going on with the sequential stuff but if I can get it to work correctly it should stay working correctly.

Option 2 would be ideal as it’s a simple setup but I think I need to also reinstall the ACV and not sure if I can have the ACV installed with the FFE secondary rails.

Option 3 would help with the stinky exhaust smell some but I still can’t pass emissions and don’t think I could get my AC to work as it was stock.



My current setup

• HKS cast manifold
• T04e turbo
• Recirculated the dump tube to the exhaust
• Mid pipe
• RB Exhaust
• Blitz FMIC
• OEM 550s for the primary and Bosch 2200 for secondary injectors, using the FFE rail

Now that the car is 25 years old I could get antique tags but that would limit me to just driving the car on Friday’s, Saturday’s and Sunday’s.

We have pretty hot humid summers here in TN and having a good working AC would encourage me to drive the car more in the summer months.

Thoughts on my options?

 

To keep ACV you need to have an OEM secondary rail I am pretty sure. This means sticking with side feed injectors, and those bored out injectors are a nightmare in my experience FYI. So you would need to run some bigger primaries to work properly on a single turbo. Which would work( top feed primaries).

 

Well, if you can't pass emissions, you can't get a tag...and without a tag no driving the car so...objective evidence indicates that no matter WHAT you do, you have to be able to pass emissions, right?
Is there any option other than #1 that would work, then?

 

 

^
Ah, now I see...thanks.

 

Hey Johnny -

Do you have emissions in your state? I didn't think Tennessee did.

If you want to reduce stink, a high flow cat goes a LONG way. I have an SMB high flow cat from Australia and have run it for about 10 years with no air pump. Works perfectly, flows great, fits great, and it gets rid of 90% of the stink. Not perfect, but it does a damn good job.

I would tackle the problems one by one.

1. Stink - get a high flow cat. See how the car does with that. I agree, I HATE rotary stink. If you have an open dump wastegate on your single, may want to get a recirc back to the downpipe done, that is putting out pure stink and is REALLY damn loud.

2. A/C. You have another thread on that. I think you can have a good working AC system with a front mount, it's all about airflow. May even want to feed it more air from below the car, make a duct in the belly pan to draw fresh air up to the condenser/radiator. May also be worth evacuating the system, pulling to a full vacuum, put a new drier in, and do a fresh charge by weight of R152a. The AC lines running by the turbo won't absorb that much heat to where it would affect AC performance. May want a heat shield/wrap just to keep it from heat soaking when the AC is off. Remember when the AC is running you have refrigerant going pretty quickly through those lines, it's not going to stick around long to absorb heat. Also remember that a stock car with a pre-cat puts out an INSANE amount of heat right in that area, you're probably way down in relative heat there.

3. Emissions. If you do have to pass emissions, you can do it with a good cat and an air pump. You really don't need the air control valve if you just want to pass - plumb the air pump air to go to the cat and run it all the time, get the motor and cat good and hot, and there you go. Of course you would need a turbo that lets you run an airpump.

Anyhow, big thing here is isolating each problem you have with the car, fixing that issue, then going to the next one. If you do end up wanting to go back to sequential twins, it's probaby not as hard as you'd think unless you hacked the wiring harness up. Get a full turbo setup with the manifold, Y-pipe, TCA, etc. and a full rat's nest, remove the emissions solenoids, and plumb it in.

Dale

 

I'm in the same boat, I went back to a SMIC to make it easier put my A/C back in and am planning to get a HFC, even an airpump eventually. I have an IWG 8374 and the car is a blast to drive, so I don't want to go back to the twins, but I would like to develop it further and get it a little closer to modern day standards. I drove my buddy's FD the other day, more stock with twins and full bolt ons at 15 psi and the car was a blast. It was very nice to drive, civil at cruise but very quick. I'm even considering putting P/S back on.

 

 

The SMB cat does have a hookup for the air hose, I think the stock pipe bolts right up to it. That cat is more pricey than other options, when I bought mine the Australian dollar was weak to the American dollar so I got it for like $400 or so, it may be closer to $800 now. Their website is the WORST by the way.

Might be better off with the Bonez high flow cat, it does well and has proved itself over the years.

Also, for passing emissions, a stock cat is hard to beat. I'm not totally sure if the SMB cat can pass emissions, it is quite high flow and may not do enough scrubbing.

The RX-8 air pump is an option but it's not designed for continuous use. On the RX-8 it only runs for a short time on cold startup and that's it.

Dale

 

got it, thanks for the info Dale.

Test drove two FDs that i thought about getting the engine setup from. One had BNRs and one was pretty much stock. Figured it would be easy to just pull everything from one of those cars and put it in mine but i really wanted the compression numbers to be over 100 on all of the faces and unfortunately the wasn't.

Since Dale mentioned i could pump air directly to the cat and not go through the ACV, that might be my best option.

 

You can run the ACV with an aftermarket secondary rail... I have the FFE secondary rail (step-up kit) and it was a very tight fit but it does clear. You have to use fasteners on the rail with a low profile and put everything together in a certain order to fit, though, it is very tight. I'm running the FFE rail, mini fuelab regulator on the end of the secondary rail, ev14 2000cc injectors and most of the emissions equipment (airpump, ACV, etc). If you do the step-up kit, you may have to modify some of the vacuum hardlines that run up by the airpump also. Everything is greatly simplified if you delete the ACV or airpump, for sure!

 

I was able to pass emission with the Bonez high flow cat and turblown 7670 setup without an airpump. However ,it was just a 2 speed idle test so the engine wasn't under any appreciable load.

 

thanks for the detailed info. I have a similar setup. The only exception is I have Bosch 2200 instead of ev2000s.

What cat do you have and have you had any trouble passing emissions?

Humm, not sure what test we have here but I don't think the load the engine, they just let it idle and stick the tester in the tailpipe. Thanks for the info.

 

I second what photoresistor mentioned. I'm running the FFE step up kit as well with ID2000s, all emissions in place with the Bonez HFC. Really satisfied with this setup.

For the injectors, you essentially have to remove some plastic off the injector to make them low profile but it was detailed in the instructions. FFE also has a low-profile banjo bolt that is supposed to not interfere with the turbo control solenoids/hardlines.

 

I'm not actually sure what cat I have. It's what came with the car when I bought it. It is not stock and looks to be some kind of high-flow unit. I was able to pass emissions (went to the test station the day it came off the semi) but that was before I did all the modifications to the fuel setup and rest of the car.. have not had to do emissions on it since. I kept my stock primaries though so am hopeful I could pass again.

The one interesting thing is though I had the ACV and air pump at the time of my test and passed with flying colors, I realized later that the airline was not actually connected to the cat as the cat has no air line nipple.. no idea how I passed (Oregon). If I had confidence it's repeatable I would ditch my air pump and ACV in a second lol. I did make sure to drive the car real hard before going in and I was able to pull right into an empty bay. Still seems strange to me that I could pass without the air input?

 

Update. Sold the black single turbo fd and replaced it with a pretty much stock 95 fd and its awesome.

Passed emissions AC blows cold, car doesn't stink and quiet.

At 36 year old, I now appreciate a more stockish car.

 

Johnny K .. grown and sophisticated ..

I'm of the same mindset ..