just failed my emissions today
here are the results


15mph | 25 mph
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| limit | reading | result | limit | reading | result |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HC ppm | 111 | 282 | FAIL | 108 | 445 | FAIL
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CO% | 0.62 | 0.68 | FAIL | 0.60 | 0.58 | PASS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NO ppm | 871 | 186 | PASS | 788 | 285 | PASS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RPM | 0 | BYPASS | RPM | 0 | BYPASS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dilution | 14.3 | VALID | Dilution | 14.1 | VALID

 

crap that format did not come out as i expected ..

anyways my questions are:

1. what is HC ppm?
2. what is NO ppm?
3. what affects HC ppm output?
4. what affects NO ppm output?
5. what can i do to lower either HC ppm and NO ppm output

 

1. HC = hydrocarbon
3. i think misfiring affects this?

i have a power fc .. i havent tried tuning it myself .. just plugged and played
should i adjust my pfc settings? will this help emissions?

 

1, 3. Hydrocarbon parts/million - excess usually means bad cat or air pump, or air pump not connected. Sometimes, extremely rich mixture can be the cause.
2, 4. NO - excess usually comes from running lean - heat of combustion produces this. This passed.
5. HC - new cat, or hook up air pump, your NO is OK.

If the cat and air pump are OK, you should not have excess HC.

 

cool thanks man ..
i guess my cat is really old .. i think its the same one since the car was first manufactured .. im pretty sure the air pump is connected

 

wow cats are expensive .. how do you know if you need to replace it? is it just something you do after a certain numbers of miles?

 

A bad ACV can also cause these problems, if both the cat and air pump check out.

 

There is a good reference on the web about passing emissions test....Perhaps someone can post a link...

HC is hydrocarbons - NOx consists of NO and NO2. - CO is carbon monoxide

NOx formation is promoted by higher cylinder temperatures. The greater the combustion temp, the more NOx.... It is also effected by A/F ratio, but I am not sure how much.

Something is suspect in your combustion cycle. It seems the HC is high and the NOx is low, indicating lower cylinder temps or incomplete combustion. (I am guessing here because I do not work directly with gas emissions, only diesel). CO should be very low for modern engines in good working order.

I would check the ignition system to start, unless I could get some better advice. Also check out that web site on how to pass emissions. From what I understand, this appears to be something that would cause a weak spark or low compression. It could be compression. Have you had it tested?

 

high NOx readings occur just after stoichy 14.7:1.. the more complete the combustion the more NOx. Rotaries have never had a problem with producing high NOx as it doesn't combust its mixture as well as a piston engine, thus rotaries tend to have high HCs which is unburned fuel. Normally high HCs means you have a misfire, how old are your spark plugs?

 

lean that **** out using your pfc., replace your spark plugs, empty your catch can, and if at all possible replace your current smog pump with an electric camaro/LS1 smog pump wired to run permanently($35 on ebay, and no belt to worry about). Be very careful when driving the car leaned out, but this is how i passed emissions in washington state. A little LUCK never hurt either.

 

I'm sorry but that's a ridiculous suggestion. None of these extraordinary measures are required to pass emissions in Cali, which has the toughest standards in the country. And BTW, electric air pumps are not meant to run continuously and will quickly burn out doing so.

All you need is a decently maintained car, a good cat, a working air pump and ACV. Putting the stock ecu back in won't hurt matters, Rescueranger, do you still have that to swap back in?

 

spark plugs are less than a year old .. id say about 7 months

 

yup still got my stock ecu .. i thought the pfc supposed to help car from misfiring

 

how do i lean my a/f with the pfc

 

if your plugs and wires are good and your emissions devices are working properly, there should be no problems... did you make sure your car was warmed up good before you put it on the dyno? the cat will only become efficient once its heated up. i see you have a power FC.. you should put your stock ecu back in just for the test or lean out the A/F mixture just for the test using your power FC.

 

i will put the stock ecu back in .. but i know 2 years prior i failed the emissions: same cat .. apex n1 catback .. dp .. intake

how do i know if i need a new cat?

 

like mentioned before, put the stock ecu in before testing. if you also have your stock pre-cat i would put that on too. just for safe measures.

one way of checking if you need a new cat is to take it out and shake it up. if you hear pieces moving around, its pretty much toast. im sure theres other ways of telling while its on the car, but i honestly have no clue. ive heard of people having boost issues with a broken cat, but i have never experianced it first hand.

good luck with the smog!

 

pre cat is too much work to put back on .. should i put the stock catback as well?

 

I'd be thinking about a new cat if I were you... The Bonez hi-flow one from rx7.com seems to do the trick. I passed California emissions with one and no pre-cat (had a DP). As has been stated, with a working cat, airpump (check that the clutch engages at rpms under about 4000) and decent plugs you should be ok. If the pfc is tuned too rich there could be issues I guess, so putting the stock ecu back in might be something to consider too. The cat-back won't make any difference so dont worry about that.

I also just passed an 8k reman w/DP and stock cat and M2 stage-3 ecu here in california with no worries too, so it's definately doable.

Simon.

 

Just for comparison my engine and ecu are all stock with downpipe, stock main cat and airpump. Plugs have over 30K on them. I just passed my emissions test with flying colors (as always):

High Speed 25 mph
standard / current reading
HC (ppm) 132 / 45
CO(%) .73 / .17
Nox (ppm) 945 / 111

Low Speed 15 mph
standard / current reading
HC (ppm) 136 / 64
CO(%) .76 / .16
Nox (ppm) 1045 / 195

 

Catback will not affect emissions readings.

 

heres something i posted a couple of years ago when i had problems passing emissions.

"How I passed MD emissions!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well about 6 months ago I went to emissions and failed horribly, since then ive been contemplating ways to get around this, and I finally did. (since my 6 month leway was up today) Let me start by listing my current mods.

Apexi twin intake
Jdm downpipe
Stock Cat <---- pretty sure its worthless after 10 yrs and loads of unburnt fuel
Apexi N1 muffler
Haltech e6k
When I passed I also had the 100-1 premix in my gas.

So basically I took the car to my friends shop where he has a tailpipe sniffer. I hooked the car up to it and just literally leaned the **** out of it. I went from 3000 HCO ppm to about 800. Well that wasent enuf so I started pondering everything I could do to the car. First I wired my smog pump straight to my battery and a ground to get that old thing spinnin, (haltech dosent control smog pump) Then I started playing with the timing... but that kept making the car die out at idle. So i used my idle screw to up my idle to about 1100 which was enuf to let me take out 2 degrees of timing, or a net of 8 degrees advance at idle.

With all this done I was able to get the car down to about 120ppm which is well withen spec somewhere around 15.5:1 afr. I drove straight to emissions (1/4 mile away) and got the test. Passed first try and already had my old map loaded on the way out of the parking lot!

Well I just thought I would put this info out their for the next person who has to pass emissions and cant figure out a way, (or just use it for an excuse to buy engine management instead of a new cat)
"

 

I will be in the same boat soon, difference is I have to find someone to bribe

 

thanks was looking for aftermarket one .. since the oem one goes for about 1400 .. ouch