Hmm well, at least the gas cap passed....

New Cat converter - 1.5yr
New o2 sensor - 1mth

Blown rear manifold (will be fixing over the holidays)

somehow I dont think just fixing the manifold is going to change the results all that much

 

"Blown rear manifold" you mean broken studs, or something else? How is your EGR Valve?

 

loosen the converter to rear pipe flange a bit. that should dilute the exhaust enough to fool the machine without making it an obvious exhaust leak for them to fail you.

 

heh, cat is welded on both ends.. my dad paid some idiot to do a cut and paste job on the exhaust 2 summers back (looks like crap) i'm probably going to have to cut it pre cat when i drop the y pipe so i can get at the rear manifold. At which point i'm considering just redoing everythign between the Y pipe and muffler.

Unfortunatley I have no welding experience, and am not sure if the $70 MAP/O2 torch welder will be sufficient for an exhaust job. I suppose I can just take it to a shop after I fix the manifold and put the Y pipe back on.

 

Not completely sure yet, I can tell the gasket has failed on the drivers side end of it. Will know more once i get at it.

Not sure about EGR valve or how to check it (i'll have to read up on that) I have a spare gasket for it, so I can probably check it pretty easily.

 

The rear manifold is not very accessible, I hope you know what you're getting into. I had both of mine leaking from broken studs and was able to pass inspection for a while until I fixed them, so be sure to cover the easier things (EGR, MAF, KS, etc...) before moving in that direction.

Do you have the FSM? There a procedure in there to check the EGR.

 

I'm going to point at the EGR first...

best way to tell if the EGR is working is to start the car and run the idle up to about 1800rpm, then feel the diaphragm under the top of the EGR... it should hold about 1/2 way open under low load at 1800 rpm.

just free-revving the engine, you will feel it pop open a hair when you blip the throttle and then immediately close again.

If it's not doing that, hook the EGR up to a straight vacuum source and raise the idle up a couple hundred RPM so it'll stay running. it'll idle like crap until you put it back to normal, but it will hold the EGR open enough for you to pass emissions.

 

This thread is not a poll of non smog states,if you can't contribute,don't post.

 

it is always possible that your 02 sensor is new but not sending a signal. I put in a new sensor and it did nothing because i had faulty wiring on the sensor harness. make sure you are getting mix feedback on the ECU after checking your codes and looking for a 33 (o2 sensor circuit)

 

your HC PPM's will be drastically reduced if you run synthetic oil......since syn does not burn as crude oil does....there should be minimal Hydrocarbon emissions.

if anyone remember the first surge of synthetic oil brands, that was one of their selling points.

 

It had code 33 prior to sensor change, it's gone now. (its curently not sending any codes)

EGR didnt budge at first, but after i drove around for awhile and checked it, it seemed to be working fine. Are they supposed to work when the engine is cold?

Thx for that, I shall try switching to synthetic. Is there a particular SAE recommended for bad VTC's?

 

My emissions were identical whether I was running Castrol GTX or Amsoil 5w30.

 

if you have old oil in the car it can alter the emissions reading.
but if the oil is new both should show the same readings.

 

Any clarification on that EGR valve? It moves during revs (but only when engine is warm) not at startup.

Is this normal?

 

Your high NOX points to the egr system.

1. the pipe that goes from the exhaust y pipe to the EGR valve clogs up with carbon. Remove it and make sure its clean including the opening at the y pipe.

2. the EGR valve itself.

3 after doin this run some seafoam through the engine. Your valves may have carbon build up to and you may be getting a little preignition.

These 3 items are mainly your time adn $5 for the seafoam.

 

Hmm.. Well this really isnt good. While working on the above, I was changing the spark plugs as well, and found that plugs 1 and 5 were drenched in oil.


I guess this explains why the car seems to be burning oil. (and partially explains the failed E-test) From what I've read this points to faulty piston rings.. which basically means the engine needs to be rebuilt.

Or is there a simplier explanation? *fingers crossed*

 

Looks like you're getting oil blow by, which is caused by worn piston rings. Either rebuild or buy new.

Scratch that: I just noticed that the oil seems to be on the top (porcelain) part of the spark plug only, if yes, then someone had simply spilt some oil in there when they are changing oil, or the oil had leaked out from the valve cover, dripping into the spark plug holes. If the oil is on the firing part as well, I would refer to the top line.

 

That pic isn't worth ****e, but from here in SA that particular plug's tip looks pretty dry to me and the actual body only seems to be drenched in oil - that certainly will not show in any emission test (unless there is so much oil that the spark-plug wire is somehow shorted and the plug is not firing reliably) and you need to therefore only fix the valve cover gasket

 

Well, i figured it probably had something to do with it since I failed the test on all 3. Anyhow, I did notice the tips still appeared to be dry.

Is the valve cover gasket different than the one you need to remove to change the rear fuel injectors? I recently had them swapped and wonder if the guy put the gasket back on wrong.

 

on the valve cover gasket. How many miles on those plugs?

 

heres a better pic i got my dad to take with his d80



Its good to note the tips are dry, but i'm still wondering why theres oil on the thread beyond the main plug nut.

Not sure how many miles, my odometer has been broken for years. Those plugs are about a year and half old. I've got new ones in now

 

Depends how tightly the plug was torqued, and how much oil is leaking from the valve cover gasket, but it could just seep down into the threads.

 

is it just me or is the ceramic around the insulated electrode rather... eroded? what brand and type are those plugs in that pic? maybe they were built that way.

 

They're NGK Platinums

 

if you are burning oil....then it's most likely piston ring blow-by, because i seriously doubt that enough oil could pass through the threads on the spark plugs to burn any signifigant amount of oil....unless they weren't torqued at all.....also, if you didnt make sure the sealing rings from the OLD spark plugs were out when you installed new ones, there is a high chance of leakage.

But beyond that, your valve cover gasket is still leaking, and any leak is a bad leak. I.E. if your valve cover gaskets were not leaking, no oil would leak into the cylinders via the spark plug openings. So you could always start there, and work your way towards the bigger problem.

 

Hi, I live in Ontario too!!
Anyways, I had to do my etest after replacing the fuel injectors, I did this about 20k after replacing them even though my car run like crap...although much better than before which was only on 4 cylinders..anyways, I failed badly.
after reading a bit I read somewhere that the ECU is an adaptive ECU and basically it would take some time to adapt to the new flow of the injectors since the ones before were dead 2 of them.
I waited about 1 week and drove it a lot and it slowly kept on getting better and idling smoother...went back after two weeks without doing anything and passed.
Although when I removed the old injectors I cleanded the plenum cover and the intake manifold thing very well and throttle body.
Anyway, just my experience please that's all it is.
Take care and good luck!

 

Can you post a link to it? - IME my VG's ECU is about as clever as a piece of coal and can learn about the same as an goldfish suffering from Alzheimer's

 

since you were speaking of a VG, the bold words were all you had to say

VE>VE

 

............... and it took you exactly how long to figure that?

 

Smitty, haven't seen you on TorontoMaxima.com. You should swing by for local Maxima help.

 

You meant VG>VE its ok to admit that.

The VG is just missing its life long brother, the turbo!

~Alex