I failed emissions... again. I was wondering if it was possible I had a clogged injector fattening up one of the cylinders after all the lines I redid. One of the methods NHRA Top Fuel funny cars use to measure cylinder to cylinder fuel usage is to take the temperature of the header primaries. I just happen to know someone with an infared camera, so we went out and did all the primaries in one shot.

What did I find? Nothing. The biggest difference I found in primary temperature was about 20 degrees F, and that was from the wind blowing over the exposed #1 primary. Here's a pic of the #3/#5 primaries. (The IR camera we used doesn't have very high resolution.)



The headers were all around 450 degrees F. This is at idle, coolant temp up to 197F. The fans kept turn on and off and screwing with the readings, plus the windy day didn't help.

When we were done I thought it'd be cool to take a couple full engine pics. The camera doesn't have a very big field of view since it's meant to look for cracks in tanks and such, but I still like the pics.

Driver's side:


Passenger's side:

 

oooo, cool toy

 

Has whatever is causing the emissions failure been isolated to a particular area? Is it related to the lower temps that E85 operates at?

 

That's pretty cool man!

 

Not yet. I've just been tuning the chip for so long without success I was wondering if there was an actual equipment problem I might've missed. (It's easy to forget the hardware.) I put in hotter plugs and bumped the timing a little bit to try and heat up the combustion some more. That didn't change much either. I actually have the car to the same readings I had last year with gasoline, when I moved the timing a bit and lowered fuel pressure (in the parking lot) to pass. I'm trying to get it to pass on the chip only so I can just load "emissions.bin" into the Osterich, pass, then load "*** kicking chip.bin" in the parking lot and take off.

I know a guy with a dyno and an exhaust gas analyzer that told me I could head over and tune the car there. I just haven't had time (or cash) lately, it's all been going into the 31.

 

I'm curious... the link in your sig says your car has an HSR, which does not have provisions for an EGR valve (as far as I've ever read anyway).

I'm more or less wondering how you address this particular issue at emissions testing?

 

They don't ask. They only care about the AIR system, the gas cap, and the cats. I've passed with it two years.

 

Ahh... I figured it was either that, swap back to stock TPI or perhaps fabricate an external EGR system like I've seen on some late model trucks.

AIR system though? Blech... I hate that crap... it was one of the first things to go when I decided to move to Flag... where there is no smog testing.

 

Are the paramaters that you fail in emissions such that functional catalytic converters would help?

 

Yup. And they're functional. The cats literally have about 100 miles on them, the AIR system is fully functional as well.

I'm registered out of county now, so they're all sitting in a box on the shelf.

 

Man, I thought one of the benefits of e85 was better emissions, less polutant.

 

The main benefit is domestic production and less dependency on oil reserves. E85 can produce bad emissions just like gasoline.

The exhaust from my car smells like a drunk man's breath. I keep expecting to get pulled over for DUI or something.

 

Obviously the concept of a renewable energy resource that is not controlled by hostile nationalities is the biggest benefit. But somehow I got under the impression that it was cleaner than gasoline.
Yeah the police will be seriously suprised when the find they can smell your breath from outside, but can pass the field sobriety test