Failed my emissions test.
- Thread starter HFX
- Start date
- Status
megaladon6 said:
nope. I left them in place with the plugs when I did the carb. I put the dwell meter on it today and it was reading about 40-45 degrees at idle once it warmed up which is way to high as far as I know. I've decided I'm not going to mess with it until I finish the other parts and check for vacuum leaks again. Although, this reading would mean the computer thinks the car is running to rich since the dwell is reduced to let in more fuel.
Update:
We had some rain this morning so I couldn't start working until about 1:00.
I started by pulling the charcoal canister and removing the old filter. It was pretty much stopped up and disintegrated as I tried to remove it. Went ahead and brought the vacuum out and sucked it up as I worked the pieces out with a screw driver. Cleaned everything around that area and found an old pair of needle nose pliars which are rusted together. Put new filter on.
I pulled the carb and EGR valve today. The passageways weren't too dirty, but the EGR valve itself had so much carbon it probably wasn't passing much. I took and ran carb cleaner through it while cleaning the passageway with wire. I figured no sense in replacing since the vacuum diaphragm was still good.
I went ahead and shot carb cleaner through the passageways while working with a wire brush attached to a drill motor and then passing wire back and forth as best I could to make sure they were as clean as possible. Followed this up by blowing them out with compressed air while a vaccuum was attached to the other in for the intake manifold side. The exhaust side I just just put the vacuum over the hole and let her suck for a bit.
Put everything back together and started it up. It fired right up but idle is still rough and wanted to kill sometimes while backing up. Took it for a test drive and it had more power at part throttle. Still feels a bit lean but better then before. Idle once again still left a bit to be desired. Still no hesitation on giving throttle (the way I noticed all my previous vacuum leaks).
I hooked back up my choke to the selenoid body rather then the manifold and changed a marginal area of vacuum line with what I had lying in my toolbox.
I did stop and try putting a couple gallons of the midgrade. I will continue to work towards being fully on midgrade and then on to regular. Got home after the drive. I put the dwell meter on the solenoid test and could actually see it wavering meaning we were now in full closed loop. However, it was varying right around 15 degrees which should mean the computer was trying to adjust for a lean condition. After a shutdown and restart, the solenoid started at 30 degrees then went up to about 37 with no real variation on the dwell like I was seeing before so I don't think I was able to get it to go back into closed loop mode while just idling and no load.
Up for next week through weekend:
Seafoaming to clean the carbon (found my old O2 sensor).
New Catalytic converter (in my trunk).
New Coolant temperature sensor (also in trunk).
New MAP sensor (on order) (BTW, Autozone and Advanced mislabel these as barometric pressure sensors. Well yes the car does have a barametric pressure sensor, but that is inside and doesn't have a port for a vacuum line. I swear.)
New canister purge valve (also on order) (possibly is currently leaking).
Changing more marginal vacuum lines (Both were out of some of the smaller sizes I need).
New set of plugs? (Recommendations?).
Checking to make sure the vacuum solenoids are all working.
Finally, another emissions test to see if I can at least pass yet.
After that, I'm about out of ideas short of trying to adjust the carbs idle jets itself, sticking a properly rebuilt one (mine was a rush job where we just changed the float valve and seat, the accelerator pump, new tps (only one had issues), and cleaned it without full disassembly.) or checking/replacing the air diverter valve.
I will keep everyone updated.
Currently when it is too dark to work I'm rebuilding my old stearing gear box so I have a spare.
I would also like to b*tch about autoparts stores not carrying emissions parts in stock for my car and requiring special order on everything when my car still has to still emissions and really isn't an ancient dinosaur... at least I don't think so.
We had some rain this morning so I couldn't start working until about 1:00.
I started by pulling the charcoal canister and removing the old filter. It was pretty much stopped up and disintegrated as I tried to remove it. Went ahead and brought the vacuum out and sucked it up as I worked the pieces out with a screw driver. Cleaned everything around that area and found an old pair of needle nose pliars which are rusted together. Put new filter on.
I pulled the carb and EGR valve today. The passageways weren't too dirty, but the EGR valve itself had so much carbon it probably wasn't passing much. I took and ran carb cleaner through it while cleaning the passageway with wire. I figured no sense in replacing since the vacuum diaphragm was still good.
I went ahead and shot carb cleaner through the passageways while working with a wire brush attached to a drill motor and then passing wire back and forth as best I could to make sure they were as clean as possible. Followed this up by blowing them out with compressed air while a vaccuum was attached to the other in for the intake manifold side. The exhaust side I just just put the vacuum over the hole and let her suck for a bit.
Put everything back together and started it up. It fired right up but idle is still rough and wanted to kill sometimes while backing up. Took it for a test drive and it had more power at part throttle. Still feels a bit lean but better then before. Idle once again still left a bit to be desired. Still no hesitation on giving throttle (the way I noticed all my previous vacuum leaks).
I hooked back up my choke to the selenoid body rather then the manifold and changed a marginal area of vacuum line with what I had lying in my toolbox.
I did stop and try putting a couple gallons of the midgrade. I will continue to work towards being fully on midgrade and then on to regular. Got home after the drive. I put the dwell meter on the solenoid test and could actually see it wavering meaning we were now in full closed loop. However, it was varying right around 15 degrees which should mean the computer was trying to adjust for a lean condition. After a shutdown and restart, the solenoid started at 30 degrees then went up to about 37 with no real variation on the dwell like I was seeing before so I don't think I was able to get it to go back into closed loop mode while just idling and no load.
Up for next week through weekend:
Seafoaming to clean the carbon (found my old O2 sensor).
New Catalytic converter (in my trunk).
New Coolant temperature sensor (also in trunk).
New MAP sensor (on order) (BTW, Autozone and Advanced mislabel these as barometric pressure sensors. Well yes the car does have a barametric pressure sensor, but that is inside and doesn't have a port for a vacuum line. I swear.)
New canister purge valve (also on order) (possibly is currently leaking).
Changing more marginal vacuum lines (Both were out of some of the smaller sizes I need).
New set of plugs? (Recommendations?).
Checking to make sure the vacuum solenoids are all working.
Finally, another emissions test to see if I can at least pass yet.
After that, I'm about out of ideas short of trying to adjust the carbs idle jets itself, sticking a properly rebuilt one (mine was a rush job where we just changed the float valve and seat, the accelerator pump, new tps (only one had issues), and cleaned it without full disassembly.) or checking/replacing the air diverter valve.
I will keep everyone updated.
Currently when it is too dark to work I'm rebuilding my old stearing gear box so I have a spare.
I would also like to b*tch about autoparts stores not carrying emissions parts in stock for my car and requiring special order on everything when my car still has to still emissions and really isn't an ancient dinosaur... at least I don't think so.
Update:
This weekend:
Saturday:
Replaced all vacuum hoses that were bad or marginal.
Replaced the EFV valve cause it tested bad.
Tried to replace the MAP sensor, but the one sold to me did not have the right plug on the end. Returned it.
Was going to replace the Catalytic converter, however, it was wrong too (was supposed to be a bolt in replacement. It did not have the square front flange, and the rear flange bolt holes would not have lined up.
Replaced the filter on the Evap canister.
6ish hours of work.
Sunday:
Swapped to a 195 thermostat. I've since swapped back to my 160 after the test as the motor feels like a total dog when warmed up.
Took my free emissions retest.
Results:
25/25 Test:
HC: 92 (144 Allowed)
CO%: 0.06 (0.92 Allowed)
NOx ppm: 1215 (1014 Allowed) Failed
RPM: 1317 (2500 max) How do they determine this?
CO+CO2 %: 11.9 (6.0 Minimal)
50/15 Test: Here things get wierd
HC: 302 (148 Allowed) Failed
CO%: 2.83 (0.83 Allowed) Failed
NOx ppm: 1142 (1119 Allowed) Barely failed.
RPM: 1450 (2500 max) How do they determine this?
CO+CO2 %: 15.3 (6.0 Minimal)
Okay, things were slightly better overall on the first test and especially NOx. Second test though just makes me go what the ....?
😢
Got home, stuck the dwell meter on it, m/c has a dwell averaging around 12 at idle? Why is the computer calling for enrichment?
Replaced thermostat since I like my car to pickup speed when I floor it.
Seafoamed the engine by adding it to the carb (it ended up killing though), didn't see the huge puffs of smoke most people get.
Idle is a lot smoother then it used to be, although has some light roughness to it. Part throttle power is up a good bit and it will run on regular again now with no valve noise.
I guess my next goals are to get a new catalytic converter, replace the water temp sensor (It wouldn't come out easy when I was trying to turn it them morning, I'm a bit afraid of stripping the aluminum.
Put in the set of AC Delco plugs I bought.
The listed the test weight of the car at 3750, but there is not a full scale for all tires on the floor. How are they coming up with this weight? I also had a half a tank a gas and the guy testing was probably around 200. Where did my car pick up 500 extra lbs?
Plug wires, cap, and rotor where replaced about 2 weeks before my initial test. I changed the fuel filter while the carb was off while cleaning the EGR valve. I replaced the PCV and replaced the crankcase ventilation filter when I did the plug wires, cap, and rotors.
This weekend:
Saturday:
Replaced all vacuum hoses that were bad or marginal.
Replaced the EFV valve cause it tested bad.
Tried to replace the MAP sensor, but the one sold to me did not have the right plug on the end. Returned it.
Was going to replace the Catalytic converter, however, it was wrong too (was supposed to be a bolt in replacement. It did not have the square front flange, and the rear flange bolt holes would not have lined up.
Replaced the filter on the Evap canister.
6ish hours of work.
Sunday:
Swapped to a 195 thermostat. I've since swapped back to my 160 after the test as the motor feels like a total dog when warmed up.
Took my free emissions retest.
Results:
25/25 Test:
HC: 92 (144 Allowed)
CO%: 0.06 (0.92 Allowed)
NOx ppm: 1215 (1014 Allowed) Failed
RPM: 1317 (2500 max) How do they determine this?
CO+CO2 %: 11.9 (6.0 Minimal)
50/15 Test: Here things get wierd
HC: 302 (148 Allowed) Failed
CO%: 2.83 (0.83 Allowed) Failed
NOx ppm: 1142 (1119 Allowed) Barely failed.
RPM: 1450 (2500 max) How do they determine this?
CO+CO2 %: 15.3 (6.0 Minimal)
Okay, things were slightly better overall on the first test and especially NOx. Second test though just makes me go what the ....?
😢
Got home, stuck the dwell meter on it, m/c has a dwell averaging around 12 at idle? Why is the computer calling for enrichment?
Replaced thermostat since I like my car to pickup speed when I floor it.
Seafoamed the engine by adding it to the carb (it ended up killing though), didn't see the huge puffs of smoke most people get.
Idle is a lot smoother then it used to be, although has some light roughness to it. Part throttle power is up a good bit and it will run on regular again now with no valve noise.
I guess my next goals are to get a new catalytic converter, replace the water temp sensor (It wouldn't come out easy when I was trying to turn it them morning, I'm a bit afraid of stripping the aluminum.
Put in the set of AC Delco plugs I bought.
The listed the test weight of the car at 3750, but there is not a full scale for all tires on the floor. How are they coming up with this weight? I also had a half a tank a gas and the guy testing was probably around 200. Where did my car pick up 500 extra lbs?
Plug wires, cap, and rotor where replaced about 2 weeks before my initial test. I changed the fuel filter while the carb was off while cleaning the EGR valve. I replaced the PCV and replaced the crankcase ventilation filter when I did the plug wires, cap, and rotors.
- Status
