For those of you guys who may remember me posting about my emissions problems (which I'm finally going to get taken care of in the next 2-3 weeks now that I will have some free time) ... my mechanic boosted my car when he was testing it for emissions. Not to mention, it was so damn hot in there, that it overheated a tad bit (if that's piossible) until we got a fan in front of it.

Anyways- I finally found my numbers and wanted to see what you guys thought - it looks pretty bad... Was wondering what we could deduce from this? considering it was boosted.

I have a power FC in the car, with downpipe, and upgraded fuel pump (dont think anything else I have affects emissions). Still have air pump and the cat. And yes, the power FC has been tuned for the car...

I hope the spacing comes out ok

HC CO NOx
Me 3.00 gpm 45.33 gpm 0.23 gpm
test limt 1.20 gpm 20.00 gpm 3.00 gpm

 

i think boosting does have effect. not sure though havn't been faced with that problem. Did you drive it hard 10 min. before you went? I've read on this fourm that, that really helps blowing out deposites in the exg. sys.

 

It looks like you may be on the rich side. Hydrocarbon emissions high, but that might not be too bad for an Rx7.

Your cat might not be hot enough. It should be able to burn off most of the Hydrocarbon and raise the NOx levels.

Is the air (smog) pump working corrctly? That would help complete the combustion of unburnt gasses in the cat.

 

Yeah, i'm sure the HC being high is due to the "safety" measure put in when the car was tuned. I am not blaming the tuner because I am certain that he did it well and did it right - which would mean run the rx7 a bit rich to be safe. Afterall, its not a race car that needs every ounce of hp... but rather a little safe is a good thing.

Hmm... I did run it hard, but it did sit for a few minutes, while the guy was backing it into the rollers and setting everything up. I think it took a good 5-10 minutes.

the cat is old though - it is a 93, and has 62k miles on it. However, if I run the car rich all the time, doesn't that mean cat dies faster? so even if i replace it, it will die out again shortly? or am i completely wrong here.

How do i check if the air pump is working corectly?

 

Can you 'disable' the turbos for the emissions test and lean it out a small amount ? That should put you under the CO limit.

You should hear the air pump if its running, mine is annoyingly loud. You can check the air pump output by removing the back hose and performing the thumb test. Also, make sure the AP clutch is engaging.

Running rich does shorten cat life, but if you are running that rich, the richness is causing your high CO.

 

Set your boost in the PFC to a very low value. Then the emissions mechanic will not get any boost. Also check your airpump, it may not be working.

 

I just did the smog check a few weeks ago...my HCs were 1858 !! GROSS POLUTER... after I changed my plugs, plug wires, O2 sensor, and discovered a leak on the tube coming off my air pump... after that the smog check went instead of 1858 HC to 6 HC!!!!!!

 

heh 6 would still lead me to fail.... heh

:\

 

Yeah but jet was quoting in ppm (parts per million) and you are quoting in gpm (grams per mile?), BIG difference. If you are pushing 6ppm in HC's, thats very very clean. As far as your results, you might want to ask the tuner to give you an "emissions" tune just for your smog check, and also make sure the operator stays off boost. When I took my test I pointed out the boost gauge and said, "don't let it go past the zero".

 

the fdizzle goes full rich if it sees more than 1psi boost

mike

 

I posted this in my local section of the forum but thought i would show the results of my recent smog test too.

well much to my suprise and what everyone else told me, my car passed emissions testing fine this morning.
this really made my day!

I was pretty skeptical since i run premix for the haltech, and well its a large ported motor single ect..
but after spending the time on sun/mon I got the smog pump to finally fit back on and put my
highflow cat on. I leaned out the light load and lower rpm ranges where they were testing to around
14.7~15 and it passed fine.

I did get lucky on the way home it chewed up the alt/waterpump/smogpump belt and that was it for that. what timing.

had to throw the greddy pullies back on to get to work.

test info
Highspeed (25mph) -(1998rpm)
------------Standard-------Current reading
HC(ppm)----132------------96
CO(%)------ 0.73 ----------0.02
C02(%)----------------------11
O2(%)------------------------5.6
NOx(ppm)----945----------367
Dilution(%)--->6 -----------11


Low Speed (15 mph)--(1815rpm)
-------------Standard Current reading
HC(ppm)-----136------------83
CO(%)--------0.76-----------0.00
C02(%)-----------------------11.4
O2(%)-------------------------5.2
NOx(ppm)----1045----------133
Dilution(%)--->6-------------11.4

so it is possible to get these cars to run somewhat clean.

I am sure emission testing is diff in others states but this was for texas. we do a rolling dyno test but they dont test under much of a load or any kind of boost..

James
93 mb

 

Ah, thanks nathan. Wonder why i get gpm... it was gpm for all measures. Its in NYC, and i recall my emission test dood stayiong on the gas for a WHIIIILE.

o.. and j9fd3s, what's fdizzle?? eh?

 

Thanks for telling him ppm... also watch out what kind of tach they are using....one time at the smog place their tach had doubled the acual RPM that my engine was running.. I think my FD was running something really low like 400 or something and their machine was saying 800 or somthing.

 

Lord knows I had my share of problems trying pass!!!
Here is what I did....

1. Change your plugs.
2. Change your oil.
3. Lower your boost to stock levels.
4. Replace your main Cat with a high flo ( I got mine from Gotham Racing)
5. Run your tank to 1/2 and add a gallon of denatured alcohol.
6. Make sure your cat is hot.
7. Make sure your air pump is getting air to the cat.

You should pass no problem...

 

thanks mecman. I certainly plan to follow those steps - i've done some research since then (it was a while ago - had put the car away for the winter). I was just hoping to get more info on what might possibly wrong.

er... how do i check my air pump? I dont recall some loud noise related to it... hmm...

 

sigh........ dont you learn with the money you spend to make it pass emissions you can easily bribe the right emissions testing person for 50 bucks.....

 

hahaha got a point there.....

 

That will not work. The minimum you can boost is 7 psi, unless you have a boost leak. That goes for ANY boost controller.

nycrx7: The smog tester has to avoid boosting. That's probably the ony reason you failed. These cars are more than powerful enough to avoid boosting on the smog dyno. Just takes a careful right foot....

 

NC: To check the air pump, with the car idling disconnect the hose at the pump to check for air flow. Then go under the car and check the hard pipe going to the main cat if you switch out to a new high flo.

 

So... is it safe to conclude (ofcourse we'll see the true result in a couple of weeks when I actaully get the car inspected)... that there doesn't appear to be anything majorly (is there such a word??) wrong with my car's emissions system. And that with a little "emissions" tuning on teh PFC and no boosting, and a hot cat, that my car should pass?

THe numbers aren't... THAT bad afterall?

 

Could be wrong, but i think thats "snoop speak" for FD. Y'know how he adds nizzle, or izzle onto everything?

 

yea... got that... this morning hehehe. Since no one replied to it, I was hoping to escape my own uncoolness by not pointing it out to anyone else hehehe

 

yah, i missed it too

mike

 

so um.... *bump*

So... is it safe to conclude (ofcourse we'll see the true result in a couple of weeks when I actaully get the car inspected)... that there doesn't appear to be anything majorly (is there such a word??) wrong with my car's emissions system. And that with a little "emissions" tuning on teh PFC and no boosting, and a hot cat, that my car should pass?

THe numbers aren't... THAT bad afterall?

 

Maybe yes maybe no . I'd give your tuner a call. Another thing I forgot to say is you can ask the smog operator to give you a "pretest" for a few extra bucks where he/she runs the machine without sending in the results to the state. That way if you fail again it won't get recorded.