Here is a readout of my smog test results can someone tell me why my results were high? I replaced cap rotor plugs O2 cleand my filters set my timing and put my stock chip back in my cat is about 3 years old. The only thing i can think of is maybe bad plug wires one of them on the outside looks a little burnt. I also put a new PCV valve in. Could it be my smog pump i can hear the bearings in it rattling i know some 3rd gens didnt get one so it makes me think thats not the problem.

15 MPH HC 110 Max 112 CO .45 MAX .72 NO 596 Max 778
25 MPH HC 39 Max 86 CO .10 Max .60 NO 410 MAX 717


I came very close to failing on the HC on my 15 mph test as you can see any ideas why i did so bad normaly all my reading are below average this time they are above average.

 

WHO CARES YA PASSED RIGHT!!!!!
Now is the time to go back & check on the things.
IF ya got lift time warranty on plug wires, trade them in!
Smog pumps designed to make the noise, so pass over that. IF ya need one I go to East LA for them at $25 w/exchange
I'd say new plugs
And
Old Cat Convertor.
Glad to hear how well ya did
And forgot one other thing.....
Your engine is aged and that will also happen (just making it pass go!!!).
Beyond that celebrate!

 

Looks like you cat. may be on it's way out. Allthough I would change your plug wires first.

After that don't worry about till the next smog check. I would change the cat at that time.

I got very lucky when I did test this year. I had a blown head gasket for 2 weeks, but had a hard time tracking it down. It wasn't a major blow out at first. just a small leak. This damaged my cat.

My HC count was 112 at 15MPH and 86 at 25MPH. Just barley passed. On top of it I had to take the test twice due to not noticing that the SES light was burrned out. Went home fixed it and went back. Lucky me put up exactly the same numbers as the first test.

 

Ok, all of your emissions are higher than you would like to see.

HC are raw fuel, so anything that causes a misfire causes high HC.

CO shows how rich you are running, the higher the CO, the richer the A/F Mixture

NOx is created by heat, usually from running lean or a bad EGR or a lazy O2.

The place I would start is with the O2. If the O2 is lazy, your CAT won't work right and all of your emissions will go up. in the next 2 years I would be loking at a CAT though since there si an emissions issue and CATs go bad when they are used to full capacity for a while. Not knowing how long it's been like this, it's probably a good idea to start thiniking about it. DON'T GET A CATCO CAT! They are horrible.

As far as the AIR pump making noise, it should be damn near silent. I have never heard a good pump that makes noise. Even when they are dumping to atmosphere, you can't hear it over the engine. Manual Trans cars got the smog pump because the engine loads are different during cold start. All the pump does is add air to the exhaust stream during cold operation when the engine is running a little richer to help oxidize HC and CO, this should not affect the smog test on a V6 unless you have downstream air that goes into the cat. I don't think the V6's had downstream air.

 

Plugs are new O2 is a brandnew AC delco i put it in saturday. Oil was changed basicly the olny thing i did not change is the wires. I will start there.

Also can a CAT go bad in 3 years? I got a dynomax direct replacement.

 

A dead hole can kill a convertor in 15 minutes. Over 3 years, even a small compression related misfire that makes the car a little unsteady at idle can kill a convertor.

What's the milage on the motor? If you're lookin' at >200K on this engine, you definitly have a small miss at idle that you can feel, right? It's nothing major, just a little tremble, but once you get off idle it goes away. Over the course of 3 years, that WILL destroy your cat 99% of the time. Very rarely do you get away with something like that for 2 inspections.

 

Ya im almsot at 240,000 and my idle isnt soo smooth so ya i guess a miss could have killed it well i will just buy a new one in 2 years i figue 5 years for converter is not too bad. My last one only lasted4 years before it begain to rattle. I thought this was due to my IAT mod but guess not.

 

I was thinking today if the guy at the test only place was being leanient. He asked what the carb eo numbers under my hood went to. Asked if my intake was stock asked if i had a cat he never checked. Then he asked if my car came equiped with an EGR Valve i said yes its on there which it is. Only thing i really saw him do was check my timing and follow my vacuume diagrams and check my charcole canaster.

 

Yeah, he wasn't doing his job.

 

where the hell do you live? in oregon they plug a snorkel pipe on your exhaust a nd put you on a dyno type thing (four big rollers, like a treadmill four your car!) and a computer checks some things, they never asked my any questions or opened my hood, nor have they EVER for my or my brother (highly modded 240SX (now a 180sx w/sylvia engine NOT LEGAL IN USA)

 

CA my friend, where we have the strictest inspection there is. We are one of the VERY few states that have a full visual inspection to look for illegal modifications.

 

California. When it comes to smog they are ****'s

 

pennsylvania is getting prety bad too, though i am exempt for now on the smog stuff.

it is great living in the middle of mountains, and not around any cities

 

Will our cars ever be smog exhempt in CA. Im going for no but isnt it after soo many years they no longer smog cars and just do a visiual.

 

Nope, they got rid of that rule as of Jan. 1st this year.

Vehicles '75 and older exempt

Vehicles '76 and newer are smogged as long as they are registered in CA

Vehicles Less that 6 MY old exempt

Vehicles Less than 4 MY old exempt from Change-of-ownership smogs.

We will be doing this with our cars for as long as we own them.

 

CA's way of trying to take our cars off the road.

I love there DMV buy back program were they will give you like 400.00 toards a brand new car and some kind of tax break.

 

They aren't trying to get our cars off the road, they are trying to force us to maintain them. The problem is that as a vehicle ages, things wear out, and as far as engines go, when they get old, they make a freakin' mess.

The buy-back program is now up to $1000 and it's a check to use for whatever you fel like. You don't have to put it towards a new car, you can buy a bunch of alcohol if you want to. They don't care.

This is mostly for vehicles that really aren't worth repairing. '83 Tercels for example, or a '78 Dodge Full-size van. The car is worth like $200, but it's gonna cost $1500 to replace the engine that's in there with a hole in the piston.