EDIT: I was originally trying to figure out how to hook up my EFE, but as was suggested later on right now I am trying to replace my coolant temp. sensor. EDIT


Ok, so I've been trying to get my car (85 firebird, 4 barrel) to pass emissions, and it has been having high amounts of hydrocarbons. I found out something called the EFE (early fuel evaporation system) wasnt hooked up to anything. It connects somehow to the exhaust manifold on the passenger side as i understand it, although i have no idea because mine was just sitting there, i pulled it out and its sitting in my garage right now. it has a vacuum line, that goes to something called a TVS on the thermostat housing. There are two of them on the thermostat housing, one goes to the EFE, the other goes to the distributor. There is a third TVS on the intake manifold that I think goes to the EGR. Each of these TVS's has a vacuum line that goes to the carb, and its respective item (EFE, distributor, or EGR). The one to the EFE obviously is not hooked to it, there was no line there. It also isnt hooked up to the carb, it just looped back into itself. While fooling around with it, I also broke off the little connecter the vacuum lines hook up to on the TVS. So here is my question(s): how do i hook up the EFE to my exhaust again? And where can i get a new TVS for the thermostat housing and which port (is that what is called?) on the carb does that vacuum line hook up to? thanks a lot, i know i dont make any sense sometimes.

 

High HC or Hydrocarbons i usually a result of running rich!

The EFE is a valve after the exhaust manifold on the pass side, that closes when the engine is cold forcing exhaust to cross the manifold heating it up to evaporate fuel so that it does not pool in the intake, I would think it is useless after the engine has come up to operating temp.

you want to make sure your EGR is hooked up and functioning, and also your O2 sensor is working (I think it was around in 85, can't remember) a that is one thing that controls rich/lean conditions.

When did you fail emmissions, where you at operating temp?

Did it fail an idle test or a rolling test?
Is your cat still there? hooked up and running?

As far as hooking stuff up Vader has a diagram, I can't find at the moment.

 

well right now i am trying to eliminate any possible problems. not only is this EFE not doing its job, it is also a vacuum leak right now since it is not hooked up, right? I did check the EGR, the diaphragm moves easily and it is getting vacuum. I dont know how to check the o2 sensor though. As for when i took the test, i have taken it twice. the first time i just drove over there, so it very well have been cold. i got 15 on the HC and it was supposed to be under 2. the second time, i drove at 65 mph for a good half hour before (went a little farther then i wanted to heh) and it got 24 on the HC, even worse! in between those times i had replaced a bunch of ripped of vacuum hoses. thats how i found out the EFE wasnt hooked up. It has a cat (A huge one at that), but i have no idea how to check and see if it is still functional.

 

On another note, when the car is first warming up, if i step on the gas hard the engine will hesitate for a second before it starts pulling. is that normal, or is there something wrong there? could it just be the carb needing tuning? thanks

 

I had the same problem. Only I have only the butterfly in the exhaust manifold, the rest of the valve was gone. These are mainly for warming the car quicker as Drakar said.

I too had problems with HCs. Checking the carb for dwell at the MCS I was only reading 6 degrees (needs to be around 30). I replaced the EGR solenoid and that seemed to get the MCS right.

Never hooked up the EFE and never had to re-test. I got a waiver, but the car doesn't have the rich smell anymore!

 

well i was told in order to check the EGR, you just see if the diaphragm on the bottom can be pushed, and it can, so i think that is ok. how do you check dwell?

 

Check dwell on the Carburetor, not the EGR. The Haynes manual gives pretty clear instructions.

First check the EGR. I noticed a problem because I never had vacuum at the valve. Cold, Hot, idling or under throttle. When you first start it up in the morning, feel the diaphragm. With my old solenoid it would not do anything. The new solenoid makes it move up and down rapidly. Thus it gets vacuum then!

This is just how I figured the solenoid was bad. May not be right!

 

The EFE is only useful while the car is warming up, so if you're testing the emissions on your car when it's warm it won't make any difference whether or not it's working. It usually draws vacuum from the same line as the A.I.R. valve and PCV, so check there for a vacuum leak.

There is a green connector floating around your engine compartment, usually either near the carburetor or in the passenger side rear corner. It's sole purpose is to be hooked up to diagnostic equipment (like a dwell meter) to measure the dwell. It won't be connected to anything. You can probably find a dwell meter at a local auto parts store. A properly operating system at operating temperature will give a dwell that varies between 25 and 35 on a 6-cylinder dwell scale. If it's not, report back to us what it is doing.

The first thing you should check is your coolant temperature sensor in the thermostat housing. Check its resistance when the car is cold vs. when the car is hot and make sure it changes. If that seems to be fine then hook up a dwell meter. The dwell should change from varying to fixed and read lower if you disconnect the CTS connector and ground it.

Your oxygen sensor should be replaced every 30k miles, so if it has been a while, go ahead and replace it.

You might want to invest in the Haynes Rochester Carburetor Manual. It gives some useful troubleshooting procedures.

 

ok, I've been busy for a while, sorry I haven't gotten to the net in a while. Which one is the coolant tempurature sensor? there are two things there, one them didnt seem like it was hooked to anything, and in fact, the wire broke off. (I thought it was sposed to be for a vacuum line but i really dont know. it wasnt hooked up to anything then). also, on another note, I dont have an AIR system, according to my Chilton's manual, 85 firebirds from canada dont have them.

 

ttt

 

The coolant temp sensor on my car (carbed) is on the passenger side of the water outlet. The "thing" on the left side of the water outlet is the vacuum control for the efe. The Coolant temp sensor has a spot for a plug in the top. The EFE vacuum control will have 2 vacuum nipples on it. At least that is what mine looks like

 

This won't help, but when my '83 Bonneville had 120k miles and ran crappy and rich and overheated, I unplugged the computer and the cat was hollowed out and the car ran great and passed emissions easy. I could have spent hundreds to get all new emission parts or.....
This is an example that a well tuned car can give better emissions than an old run down emissions system on a car.
Of course I would'nt suggest doing this.

 

so is the sensor actually on the thermostat housing, or on the intake manifold? im just gonna buy a CTS and try and figure out where it goes. what does it hook up to? what wires attach to it? thanks

 

It hooks up to the yellow and black wires, it's the only part in the thermostat housing that has a wire connector on it, which is two prongs inset into the top of it.

 

Hmm, I dont remember seeing any black and yellow wire, but I will have to look when i get home. on my thermostat housing there are two big bolts that i assume are actually sensors of some sort. one of them has a hole in it that something used to plug into but it has broken off. the other one has a vacuum line on it if i remember correctly

 

ok, so i finally got paid and i bought the new sensor. however, i cant find anything in my car that looks like it. none of them have a spot for any wires to plug in like the new sensor does. is it possible someone just jammed the wrong thing into where the coolant sensor is sposed to go? and if so, where are these black and yellow wires that should plug into them? i cant find any black and yellow wires. where do they go? where do they plug into? i am getting quite perturbed/frustrated

 

Is there perhaps a better forum this could be posted in?

 

ok ,after some digging, heres my water outlet

http://www.partsamerica.com/PartDeta...pe=398&PTSet=A

on the passenger side (in the picture, the side further away) in that hole goes a switch or sensor or whatever you want to call it (on the site it is called a ported vacuum switch, and on my emissions label on my car it refers to things in that area as TVS's for various things, the EFE, the distributor, etc.), that looks something like this

http://www.partsamerica.com/PartDeta...pe=285&PTSet=A

except that it is missing the port in the middle. it looks like there may have been one there at one time, but no longer is.

on the other side, somethign that looks like this plugs into the hole in the water outlet. it has one vacuum line go to the carb and the other to the distributor

http://www.partsamerica.com/PartDeta...pe=285&PTSet=A

does that do anything for you guys? i can not find anything with a wire connector like my new coolant sensor i bought. i have no idea where it goes. also, the first sensor (the second link i just posted) is broken, the part with the ports is broken off the switch at the bottom and can come out. i have no idea what it connects to.

 

First of all, does your car even have a computer? You mentioned Canadian versions, is your car a Canadian export? I don't know much about Canadian cars, but I do know that if you don't have a computer you don't need that sensor. On my computer-controlled '85, I have a TVS that looks like the second one above, which is the charcoal canister purge TVS. It is located next to the water outlet and not screwed into it. My coolant temperature sensor is screwed into the passenger-side hole in the water outlet, and the EFE TVS is in the other hole and has two vacuum ports.

 

hmm well i kind of just assumed it had a computer. how would i find out for sure? and by canadian car, i just know that at some point it was in canada and it has metric guages, so... whatever that means. there is a TVS on the intake manifold, on the passenger side of hte water outlet. that one has vacuum lines going to the EGR. again, the one on the drivers side on the water outlet goes to the distributor, and the one on the passenger side doesnt go anywhere currently, i assume it should go to the EFE. Since my car has a vacuum advance distributor, does that mean its not computer controlled? i really dont know. I Thought they were all vacuum advance regardless.

 

ok, well I've done some looking around and I'm going to assume it doesnt have a computer. theres no oxygen sensor, I cant find a coolant sensor so it probably doesnt have one, and it has a vacuum advance distributor. That being said, what could be causing my problems then if it's not a coolant sensor? They are:

1: excessive hydrocarbons when emissions tested
2: the exhaust does smell
3: when i step on the gas the car hesitates
4: worse yet, after not being driven for a couple weeks, I would step on the gas and the engine wouldnt rev up at all, you could hear it get louder but it just sat there firing, sounded like a lawnmower. the rpms would start to drop and the engine would stall. it seems better now that ive been driving it for a few days
5: I can hear a bit of a pop in the exhaust, like when I'm sitting at a stop light every few seconds the car will raise up about a hundred rpm, so if im not holding the brake that hard the car moves a little

I'll add more symptoms when I think of them/ they crop up. does anyone have any ideas?

 

Info: A computer controlled carb has a 2 wire connector on top of the carb and a 3 wire connector on the side. Do you have these? What is the model number on the carb?