Failed E-Check

[Stu162]

The only parts I passed were having a gas cap, having a cat, and hydro-carbons. The hydrocarbons were less than 100 ppm away from failing. The carbon monoxide levels were 3 times the limit. The timing still needs to be adjusted. I showed the sheet to our mechanic and the first thing he asked was if I even have a cat on there. We replaced it last fall. There was a thread about it. He also suggested that the o2 sensor could be bad. When he put the headers on, he ran a test and said that it would pass. I have until monday...

[Mkos1980]

I passed with no smog or EGR and heads, cam and superram :D

[Mkos1980]

BTW you could pass with no 02 or any other sensor, the car will go off of a program when the SES light comes on. Our maxima has all 4 02 sensors bad, knock sensor bad, and MAF bad, but it still passes, drives good, and gets 25+ MPG. SES light has been on since 80k and the car has 130K now :)

[JaysZee]

It could be a carb problem. I passed with gutted cats and the 24# injectors easily but if they tested at WOT I'd probably fail too. My air/fuel ratio was 11.9 to 1 when I was on the dyno. The headers should have helped though.

[87IROC Z]

I also passed when i had the iroc. All i had was a cat and egr. Everything else was gone. I put in a bottle of that stuff that supposed to guarantee e-check passing. Worked like a charm. Maybe try some of that.

[2camaros]

Or maybe E-check is just a scam. ;)

[Stu162]

Hydrocarbons were much closer than I said. It was actually 11.5 ppm. Not 100 :eek:

[largefish]

Ed's car diesels when he shuts it off so I'm thinking if he gets his timing and/or carb adjusted a bit the emissions should come down. I also suggested he run up and down I-71 a bit before he goes again to get the cat really hot...

[chainsaw]

yeah, it would be good to have the car at full operating temperature for the test...

how much gas did you have in the tank, ed? maybe try running around 1/4 tank, and mixing in some of that emissions stuff, or whatever alcohol it is.....

best of luck

[chainsaw]

Originally posted by Mkos1980
I passed with no smog or EGR and heads, cam and superram :D

"oh, is that a formula?! you pass, it's ok." :finger:

[Stu162]

(this is John...) Had the timing checked yesterday and it appeared to be right on and aksed him to advance a couple of degrees. Ed picks it up and hits the interstate and it throws a code so he stopped back at the shop but they were busy and he had to get up to school. This morning I check the codes and it's a 13 and a 41, but the 41 could have been old. No code 12 with the engine running but it kicked the idle way down in test mode and I had to hold it up to keep it from stalling. Ed makes 2 calls and heads to NAPA and I crawled under and removed the old one which was 99.99% carbon. He gets back puts the new one on, I tighten and BOOM the car is running much better. Ed drove it around, and said it stll dieseled but he turned it off in park for the first time in like a year... Hope that's it... Off to FC...

[Stu162]

Just had it tested again...
HC went down from 132.5 to 113.9 where the limit is 148
CO went down from 2.7% to .82% where the limit is .94%
CO2 when from 12.82% to 13.83%
NO went from 1157.9 ppm to 2696.3 ppm where the limit is 1047 ppm.

We still have a little bit of work to do. My mechanic thinks its the carb and said if the timing and O2 sensor didnt fix it, he would reccomend a rebuild, which he said was around $250...

[largefish]

I was home yesterday stuggling most of the day with an ignition problem with the GA that turned out to be a flakey connector. :mad: After I got it going I got some dry gas and drove Ed's Z around on 71 & 480 and took the test again. I found even though he doesn't have AC, keeping the AC on when I was in line kept the fan running and kept the car cooler. Came down some more in HC, but the NOx was still off the scale. Had looked at the shop manual which puts EGR at the top of the list for NOx and seems that is where the problem lies along with some vac. leaks and a little carb. adjustment, so hopefully Ed will be in compliance soon...

[Stu162]

It failed again today after having those fixed... Apparently, the limit for NOx was just put into effect september 1st. So if I would have gone in august, I could have passed. My dad said he called the EPA today and talked to them, and I believe he said we could be exempt because we brought the levels down, and spent the required amount of $.

[Mkos1980]

Go to the one on canal. My scores were all 0's ;) :D

[largefish]

Just thought I should let you all know that unless you've taken a test this month (where you were actually tested, not just given 0s cause they liked your car :D) none of you have passed the test Ed was failing. As Ed posted, until Sept. 1 NOx was measured but there was no limit. It's all changed now. :mad: HC and CO come down when the car is hot (which is probably why the mfrs. have cars running so hot stock) but NOx goes up when the car is hot so it's really hard to strike a balance. I got the waiver this morning when I brought the receipts in, but it may be ugly next time around unless we can either bring the NOx down further or they change the limit, maybe just for older cars.

[chainsaw]

:chuckle:

which one is the most dangerous?

that sucks.... how long is the waiver good for?

i'm not looking forward to e-check if and when we get it.

[Stu162]

Waiver is good for 2 years :thumbup:

[nightrider]

I passed no problem with a holley double pumper carb and the timing unknowingly retarded about 15 degrees. Took my a while to find out why the car was so much slower this year but that was it lol.

I also put 4 bottles of fuel line antifreeze in about 7 dollars worth of gas back when it was 1.70 for premium.

Probably don't have to do anything near that drastic again though since i passed with levels of 10 where i could have 150.

[chainsaw]

Originally posted by Stu162
Waiver is good for 2 years :thumbup:

very cool, at least it will enable you to sort the problems out over a period fo time instead of all at once.

[largefish]

I took my '01 E-check yesterday. The standards are tighter and I passed with flying colors... I'll probably test the GA early in '04 as I'm curious what the standards for it will be since it's midway between the 87 and 01 in production year.

[TwoBears]

Your car will pass easier with a tank full of 87 octane fuel rather than a higher octane gasoline. The reason? Higher octane gasoline is harder to ignite than the lower grades so there will be higher levels of HC in your test results with 92 rather than 87. Now I'm not saying run your car on 87 octane all the time, only at testing time. Keep your foot out of it until the 87 octane gas is used up and you should be fine.