Smog check help
 

I have a 1993 S13 Hatchback with 240K miles.

The previous owner failed the smog check yesterday.

The result:

M1. 15MPH
HC: MAX 88 AVE 21 MEAS 28
CO(%): MAX 0.52 AVE 0.06 MEAS 0.08
NO(PPM): MAX 704 AVE 150 MEAS 775

M1. 25MPH
HC: MAX 53 AVE 13 MEAS 24
CO(%): MAX 0.50 AVE 0.05 MEAS 0.13
NO(PPM): MAX 738 AVE 136 MEAS 507

My friend help me to do the regular maintenance services after I brought the car.

We did:

Change engine oil and oil filter
Flush coolant and fill in 50/50 coolant
Clean fuel and change fuel filter
Replace air filter
fill up 91 Octane

I just smogged the car today and it failed.

M1. 15MPH
HC: MAX 88 AVE 21 MEAS 41
CO(%): MAX 0.52 AVE 0.06 MEAS 0.12
NO(PPM): MAX 704 AVE 150 MEAS 784

M1. 25MPH
HC: MAX 53 AVE 13 MEAS 31
CO(%): MAX 0.50 AVE 0.05 MEAS 0.10
NO(PPM): MAX 738 AVE 136 MEAS 432

How do I pass the NO(PPM) with 15mph? Any suggestion? Replace O2 sensor, catalytic converter?

Thanks!

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There are abot 3 things that can affect Nox

1 catalytic converter
2 o2 sensor
3 egr system ie modulator,malfunction egr, clogged egr pipe, clogged egr port to intake manifold, ect

how does the car run? have you checked your plugs, wires, cap, rotor and ignition timing

Yea, the spark plugs and wire are ok. Will octane booster and cleaning throttle body would help me in this case?

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm

"The EGR valve diaphragm should lift up and down without restriction."

How does EGR valve diaphragm look like? Is it like a gold-colored, round-shape metal plate?

I checked last night, but I am not should how high will the valve diaphragm lift up?

2 days ago, when my friend and I were under car doing regular maintenance services, we saw the whole exhaust has rust and a red color. My friend told me that could be high temperature from somewhere in the engine. He remembered that his friend's new car has this red exhaust system problem, and they brought the car back to the dealer. And the dealer person told them that the cause of the red exhaust system problem is from high temperature from the engine or some sort.

If that is the case, what should I do?

I don't how old is the whole exhaust system. I think it is at least 5 years old because of the rust and stock looking.

Assuming, the previous owners never replace the exhaust system. I believe I should just replace the cat.

Would replacing the muffler help the emission?

Thanks!

muffler would not help with emissions sounds to me you have a egr problem since you failed the 15mph test you have to perform a functionality test on the egr

/\/\/\/\ agreed. a new cat might be enough of a band aid to get u thru the test, but a strong possibility is that either your egr valve diaphragm is torn or otherwise leaking, or that the egr tubing/passageways are clogged.

ok, do this, add a bottle of isopropyl alcohol to about a half filled gas tank, drive it around a bit to get it mixed and in the fuel line. alcohol lowers combustion temperatures thus NOx levels will be lower. also, nox resolved from running lean which is one of the symptoms. get the highest percent isopropyl alcohol and try again, get around 90% because the other 10 percent is water, though water is not combustable, it will dilute enough to not cause any harm. also, try retarding your timing a few degrees. that may help. these are just cheap/money free possibilities. the alcohol wont hurt your engine, just dont use more than 1 bottle..about 16 ounces

Let me know if this works for you. i bet it will. pm me or something

Try seafoaming the car.

Do you think using seafoam would help passing smog check in my case?

http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=126583&page=1

No seafoam or any liquid additives is going help your emmision. you have to physically test the system and repair the problem there's no such thing as a miracle in a bottle

did you even try this? it will get your NOx levels down.

Since 24k miles was stated, how long has the car been sitting? You also said that you did all the routine maintenance, did you also drain the tank of old fuel? Try putting another new fuel filter 'cause I doubt you cleaned the lines and add some fuel system cleaner in the tank. There's usually problems big and small when finally taking a car out that has been garaged for a while. Also, how long has the car been driven after sitting for so long?

THis is what we did last night:

1) We tried to remove the EGR valve entirely, but we don't know exactly how. Basically, we just removed the EGR valve vacuum hose and spray some Pryroil Carb&Choke Cleaner in it. We also sticked out finger in the bottom of the EGR valve and lift up the diaphragm while the engine is running. The engine stumbled, so we believe the EGR valve is working. Is there a easy way to remove the EGR valve from the car entirely? I want to clean the inside parts of the EGR valve. What nuts do I have to remove first? And what other parts do I have to remove first?

2) Then we seafoamed the car. We followed his steps:

33% gas tank, 33% crankcase. 33% intake manifold through brake booster line. I have a question here. Why the brake booster line will connect to the intake manifold? What is the purpose? And why there are other vacuum lines connect to the intake manifold?

http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=126583&page=1

Compare with other cars on youtube, my car doesn't have alot of smog coming out from the exhaust. Do we need to pour one more bottle of Seaform? If we decided to pour 1/2 bottle to intake manifold and 1/2 bottle to gas tank, do we have to do oil change and change the oil filter again? My friend said we don't have to change the oil and oil filter, but I argued that the seafoam will make the engine oil thinning. So, changing the oil and oil filter is needed after each seafoam regardless where we pour into.

That is all we did.

3) "ok, do this, add a bottle of isopropyl alcohol to about a half filled gas tank, drive it around a bit to get it mixed and in the fuel line. alcohol lowers combustion temperatures thus NOx levels will be lower. also, nox resolved from running lean which is one of the symptoms. get the highest percent isopropyl alcohol and try again, get around 90% because the other 10 percent is water, though water is not combustable, it will dilute enough to not cause any harm. also, try retarding your timing a few degrees. that may help. these are just cheap/money free possibilities. the alcohol wont hurt your engine, just dont use more than 1 bottle..about 16 ounces

Let me know if this works for you. i bet it will. pm me or something"

Do you thing pouring alcohol in the gas tank will help emission?

Thanks!

my friend(OP)'s car is @240K, that's a typo to started with :-/

ur car has 24k on the chassis?

My car has 240K miles instead of 24K miles.

I've had high NO a 2 times on 2 different cars. Failed on the 15 and passed on 25 just like you. It's something in the EGR system. In both cases, there was a crack in the hose at the EGR valve. I know it's a PITA, but you really need to give those hoses the most anal check you've ever done. The fist time it happened to me, I did everything you're doing and swore I checked the hoses at least 5 times. We even used some brake clean to see if the there was a change in idle. Well, the crack in the hose was in a blind area and wan't getting hit by the brake clean from the angle we were spraying. So.... my advise it take each hose connected to the EGR and disconnect the ends, inspect it, and then reconnect them. I did that the 2nd time it happened to me and found the crack right away and passed when i brought it back. Good luck man.

1) Will high octane gas and octane booster help emission in my case?

2) Will retard ignition time help emission? How does it work? And how do I adjust the timing?

Thanks!

Octane of the Gas does not matter enough. You retard your ignition timing at the distributor. Though do not get it to far off because they will fail it, especially for being advanced.

I have taken Gross polluters that were high mileage and made them pass. Basically I make sure the egr is working and there are no cracked vacuum lines as these will cause a EGR system failure. Check the lines going to the BPT as well.

Do a tune up if you have not already. Then I have done this several times and it works. Open up your intake right in front of your throttle body. With the engine running spray carb cleaner into the throttle body. Rev the engine while doing this or it will choke and die. You should see a fair amount of smoke out the tailpipe thats burning the crap out of the whole EGR and AIV system. This can work.

I do suggest you also check out your cat because from the description of your exhaust system its probably toast.