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failed ANOTHER smog test - details enclosed


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took the hatch in this morning, here's the readout:

 

15mph @ 1846rpm

CO2 - 14.3%

02 - 0.7%

HC - measured 243ppm, max allowable 127ppm

CO - measured 0.51%, max 0.79%

NO - measured 3139ppm, max 825ppm

 

25mph @ 2947rpm (a$$hole$ should be shifting into third here but test in second)

CO2 - 15.2%

02 - 0.0%

HC - measured 43ppm, max allowable 101ppm

CO - measured 0.12%, max 0.68%

NO - measured 979ppm, max 764ppm

 

all my visual inspection stuff has passed so my fuel injection conversion is kosher as soon as i can pass a tailpipe test. i made sure my egr was opening just last night... i don't know what the hell to do with this thing anymore. i've dumped waaaaay too much money into it already - especially considering my wife lost her job a few weeks ago, my work is way slow, my landlord is hanging an eviction over our heads, i haven't made the bills in two months now and i'm damn near ready to give up on this piece of $H!+.

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There are a couple things you can do.

The first I did on my old carbie hatch was get some berrymans fuel cleaner and dump it in the tank. The whole bottle with about half full of fuel and run it till it is nearly empty. You can use seafoam also for that. Another good idea is pour seafoam down the carb till it dies or sputters out and that will clean it up quite a bit. Also if all else fails pour a couple bottles of "heat in with your gas when you go back for emissions. Heat is mainly alchohol and will make your car run cleaner when going through emissions.

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oh no.

 

Do you know the condition of the cataytic converter?

 

Have you checked the distributor advance? Both vacuum and the mechanical weights? I failed smog in Wisconsin 5 times till I disasembled, cleaned and lubed the advance weights in the disty.

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There are a couple things you can do.

The first I did on my old carbie hatch was get some berrymans fuel cleaner and dump it in the tank. The whole bottle with about half full of fuel and run it till it is nearly empty. You can use seafoam also for that. Another good idea is pour seafoam down the carb till it dies or sputters out and that will clean it up quite a bit. Also if all else fails pour a couple bottles of "heat in with your gas when you go back for emissions. Heat is mainly alchohol and will make your car run cleaner when going through emissions.

 

His is a SPFI Conversion Hatch.... there's another thread on it somewhere.....

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that's right, spfi guys.:) no carb or vac advance, just a rebuilt throttle body and optical cas dist with ecu advance and timing is on the money @ 20deg btdc.

 

my front cat is probably toast. i just looked at parstamerica.com, autozone.com and rockauto.com for a replacement. anyone know where i can get the whole shebang (y-pipe with front cat) for less that the black market price of a human soul?

 

i have a second cat under the pass seat area that's only months old, but it sure doesn't seem to be helping that NOx much does it...:rolleyes:

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Move to Idaho? :rolleyes:

no inspection ;)

 

i've been planning a move out of ca for a year now but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen with all these unexpected changes to my financial situation. i originally planned on moving to northern idaho (my brother lived outside of moscow, i've never felt the same about my current corner of the world since spending a week there.) but my wife and i changed the plan to co for some important reasons. right now i'd count myself lucky just to take a road-trip out of this cesspool of social dysfuntion.

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High HC is probably too rich.. And high NOx is too lean/too advanced ignition.

 

Sounds like your mixture is all over the place. Did you verify the ECU is closing the loop? Put a voltmeter on the O2 sensor wire and it should swing between 0.8V and 0.2V thereabouts. At idle it will swing about once per second and at 2k RPM it should do it a few times per second.

 

Oh and alcohol in the tank will help with HC and CO but not NOx.

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i've been doing a bit of research and i'm thinking my problem seems to be o2 sensor related. i put a new bosch universal in the bung on the front cat and i remember it was hell not only getting the old one out but getting the new one in. i hate to say so but i think i should probably replace both the cat ($92 maremont 38682 from autozone) and the o2 sensor with an oem unit ($99.02 oem 22690AA120 from subaruparts.com, anyone got a cheaper source?).

 

has anyone ever noticed a difference between running a universal aftermarket (mine is a bosch) and an oem or even a denso unit?

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has anyone ever noticed a difference between running a universal aftermarket (mine is a bosch) and an oem or even a denso unit?

 

Last year while chasing my below-the-radar bad spark plugs, I replaced my nonfunctioning O2 sensor with a cheap bosch universal.. the LED on the ECU was constantly on and I always got very poor voltage through it, IIRC. It was a bear to remove and to re install (I had the exhaust off of the car, had a three foot cheater bar on the O2 sensor and the exhaust levered on the ground with my foot holding it solid, and had to exert full force of my meager 5'8" frame with great care to get it off.. slightly less herculean effort re installing a new one)

 

After the new unit was installed, the voltage read functioned as expected and the LED monitor light on the ECU performed properly as well.

 

It didn't fix the problem I had at the time, but I have never doubted its function since.

 

Have you run a disgusting liberal application of seafoam through the vacuum lines of this car??? If you overdo it, you can manage to get some seafoam out into the catalytic converter, and if it is simply clogged with soot from running rich for so long (good chance) then the seafoam should help to burn it off...

 

 

Good luck with your war on fascist emissions nazis :)

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Last year while chasing my below-the-radar bad spark plugs, I replaced my nonfunctioning O2 sensor with a cheap bosch universal.. the LED on the ECU was constantly on and I always got very poor voltage through it, IIRC. It was a bear to remove and to re install (I had the exhaust off of the car, had a three foot cheater bar on the O2 sensor and the exhaust levered on the ground with my foot holding it solid, and had to exert full force of my meager 5'8" frame with great care to get it off.. slightly less herculean effort re installing a new one)

 

After the new unit was installed, the voltage read functioned as expected and the LED monitor light on the ECU performed properly as well.

 

It didn't fix the problem I had at the time, but I have never doubted its function since.

 

Have you run a disgusting liberal application of seafoam through the vacuum lines of this car??? If you overdo it, you can manage to get some seafoam out into the catalytic converter, and if it is simply clogged with soot from running rich for so long (good chance) then the seafoam should help to burn it off...

 

 

Good luck with your war on fascist emissions nazis :)

 

 

that's along the lines of how my car runs now, the o2 monitor light is on most of the time and it smells rich/misfires when its cold. thing is, high nox would be more likely to indicate lean conditions, wouldn't it? maybe that ecu is confused as i am....

 

every inch of rubber vac, pcv, iacv, fuel, & coolant line is new. i replaced the heads and cleaned my crankcase out by just wiping around and using some compressed air, bead blasted and powdercoated the valve covers & oilpan, resealed all around, replaced almost all service item parts.... this thing should be running beautifully but there's a glich somewhere i've yet to pinpoint. i'm thinking i need to replace the o2 sensor and front cat to be damn sure i pass - i really needed this car this weekend (took the wife's legacy on a much harder trail than i was comfortable with up to relief reservior by way of 5N01D. i was impressed beyond belief by what that legacy just did in the last three days!!!!!:eek: should have seen the looks all those lifted jeep guys gave us!! :lol: and now the wagon has light battle scars).

 

but yeah, i'm gonna throw another couple hundred at this pit in the o2 sensor/cat direction and see if that doesn't give me a foothold to climb out by.:rolleyes:

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two good ways for tracing vacuum leaks that I like to use: tube in the ear, listening for them, and an unlit propane torch, trying to feed them fuel so you can hear RPMs go up.

 

I dunno if you knew these tricks or not, but i figured I would make sure :)

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two good ways for tracing vacuum leaks that I like to use: tube in the ear, listening for them, and an unlit propane torch, trying to feed them fuel so you can hear RPMs go up.

 

I dunno if you knew these tricks or not, but i figured I would make sure :)

 

i hadn't heard of either of those tricks. i was dreading having to spray my beatifully bead-blasted and painted intake with carb cleaner but maybe now i can avoid potentially wasting all that work.

 

i was going to let the hatch sit while i wait for parts and work on the wife's legacy but i think i'm going to try the propane torch idea in the morning just for @%$?s & giggles.

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well, thanks to the "california budget crisis" i can't so much as make an appointment to have my car checked by a ref. the ca bar is shut down until a budget is passed, and the ca dca is also shut down. if you think that's bad, imagine how many court cases are getting tossed out right now throughout the state for lack of system capacity - i hear about them all day long!! i'm on the brink of organizing some peaceful rallies for gov't accountability!!

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Thanks for the photos. I was wondering if I would be able to keep the pipe heat shields that are bolted on to my pipes. Obviously not since the bends are different. It does look like a quality part otherwise.

 

Edit: Opps, wrong thread. I hope once you finally do get another shot at it you pass this time. You've sure tried hard enough!

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