FAILED. Ooooops... Emissions help?

[Dolphin18T]

holy fuuuuuck that is intense, can you go over everything you did to get it to pass? I'm gonna have the same problem when I reregister my car... so lame! right now its registered in virginia, and the tag expired a couple months ago so i just removed it haha. not gonna worry about it until i have to but would like to have some tips ready

Seriously, I'm so sick of having to deal with it. Sooooo glad it's over for a couple years at least.

You might want to get on that. If you get pulled over and they see that you don't have a valid registration they can impound the car. I got one warning when mine was expired but it was right near my house so the cop just told me to go home and if he saw me driving again he would lock the car up. That's when I got my 60-day temp tag.

Anyways. My first plan after E85 wasn't enough was to get a new, HUGE cat. I installed a large volume Magnaflow metallic substrate cat to replace the smaller Vibrant one I had. It gave me much better emissions numbers, but it still wouldn't pass CO (too rich). The second thing I did was switch my tune to Maestro. With Maestro I was able to fine tune my fueling and get better numbers, but it still wasn't enough. I was consistently failing CO by ~0.45 gpm. At this point I learned with my trials with E85 that it will significantly reduce CO and HC emissions, but it seemed to raise NOx emissions somewhat if they were already under the limit. Using E85 before, I was able to pass CO and HC, but it would boost my NOx to failing values.

So... Finally, with the new cat and the new tune, on straight 91 OCT I was getting readings like this:

HC: 0.5764 PASS
CO: 15.4527 FAIL
NOx: 1.2896 PASS

So, I added some denatured alcohol (~50/50 Meth/Eth) to the tank just before entering the testing station This, like E85 will lower CO, but raise NOx if it is already below the limit. Luckily it seems I got just the right amount of it in the tank and CO went down enough, and NOx JUST BARELY stayed below the limit. I did this on a very near empty tank so that I only had to use a small amount. I immediately drove to the gas station and diluted the tank.

[bblume]

Ok....my turn to gripe and ask for help...
I just failed only the NoX (4.5 and the limit is 1.5)
Of course this is b/c of high combustion temps and/or pressures.
But I just realized I left my W/M pump off (didn't realize I turned it off) so I know that would affect EGTs,
but would it be wise to detune (change the REVO settings) before testing again...or should I chance it with the W/M on?
Thoughts?

I'm guessing b/c I passed the other two tests, this isn't an issue with the HFC??

[bblume]

ok for posterity's sake, I'm going to try two things...
1-turn on the w/m pump
2-retard the timing (hopefully 303 will switch me back and forth for free)>??

Will update with results.

[Docwyte]

NOx is almost always the cat. If your HFC has been on for awhile chances are it's done, they don't last very long...

[bblume]

NOx is almost always the cat. If your HFC has been on for awhile chances are it's done, they don't last very long...

that's funny doc...my HFC is not more than 2yrs old and every mechanic I speak with suggests retarding the timing/running the w/m to lower temps/pressure in the cylinder.

Man what a chittty day....caught a rock(or really hard piece of ice) on the highway and blew my LF tire...then limped to a ghetto garage on colfax to have another newer wintersport that I had in the garage mounted/balanced, and of course I didn't have my wallet.....
It's been one of those days...time to stay inside the house and call it a day.

[vdubjetta02]

My O34 cat passed when I first put it on, Then my car could not pass emissions when I sold it with the 034 HFC 1 1/2 years later..... Nothing else had been added or changed except for a Turbo Inlet pipe

[bblume]

My O34 cat passed when I first put it on, Then my car could not pass emissions when I sold it with the 034 HFC 1 1/2 years later..... Nothing else had been added or changed except for a Turbo Inlet pipe

I hear ya....if that's the longevity of an HFC, that's piss poor(especially when one considers the price)! 034 will be hearing it from me if it goes that far. As far as the second test is concerned I'm going to move forward by running w/m and retarding timing since only my NOx was a fail.

Did you hear from the person you sold it to as to which tests failed?

[Docwyte]

That's the typical life of an aftermarket HFC. They barely work well enough when new to pass smog. There's a reason why the OEM cats cost $1500 each and the aftermarket ones cost $150. It's not 034's fault, they don't make the cats, they're ALL like that, unless you go OEM.

On my race car I have test pipes and HFC pipes. When I need it smogged I pop in the cats, otherwise I run the test pipes. That way I'm not buying cats every other year.

[bblume]

That's the typical life of an aftermarket HFC. They barely work well enough when new to pass smog. There's a reason why the OEM cats cost $1500 each and the aftermarket ones cost $150. It's not 034's fault, they don't make the cats, they're ALL like that, unless you go OEM.

On my race car I have test pipes and HFC pipes. When I need it smogged I pop in the cats, otherwise I run the test pipes. That way I'm not buying cats every other year.

I hear the song "If I knew then what I know now" playing in my head. Since it's going to be free to detune and run w/m I'll try that first, as I search for a used cat...too bad I sold mine away many moons ago!

[bblume]

okay...looks like you guys were right, but it was worth a shot before swapping out cats real quick...I failed again today after the detune and w/m on at full....thanks for the help...I suppose I'm an optimist....anyways, I'll swap out the HFC for a stock cat real quick later this week or next!

[bblume]

witha stock cat, my car passed (it was detuned at the time THANKS 3zero3) with flying colors....thanks for the help earlier guys...should've known a high-flow cat and a long-lasting element don't coexist...!

[Mcstiff]

I've heard good things about Random Technologies and Magnaflow Metallic cats.

I'm trying a Magnaflow but maybe I'll make a test pipe too.