How to pass SMOG TESTING!

INFORMATION Articles / Teg Tips
1

if everything in your car is already in good working order (no need for a tuneup), here is what you can do to help pass smog

  1. have a quarter tank of premium gas

  2. add 3 bottles of HEET fuel line anti-freeze (99cents each at pep boys)*

  3. tighten your throttle cable to stock specs

  4. retard your timing to 14 degrees BTDC (need timing gun, or shop can do it for 15bucks or so), turn up idle to compensate (follow proper procedure in manual).

  5. make sure your car is fully warmed up before they pull you in to test.

*thanks to k2bumper for the info

Originally posted by k2bumper
My brother works at a carb. shop and they work on a bunch of emissions stuff. My teg failed recently by just a hair. My brother’s boss told me to put 3 bottles of heat (or any other type of gas line anti-freze) in the tank. This stuff is pretty much pure alcohol and will make the car run really clean. You will probably want to add it to the tank when you’re under a quarter tank so as to increace the concentration. You may notice that you’ll have less power while running the stuff through the system, but it doesn’t hurt your engine as far as I’ve heard (it actually makes it run a lot cooler).

–

if you fail, here are some tuneup tips:

  1. inspect and replace your air filter if needed.** i advise to put your stock intake back in with a new filter (~$7 at pep boys i think)

  2. replace spark plugs (1.59/each at pep boys for ngk or denso)

  3. inspect and replace your catalytic converter if needed.**

  4. test and replace your pcv valve if needed.**

  5. test and replace your o2 sensor if needed**

  6. inspect and replace your vacuum hoses if needed.**

  7. inspect and replace your radiator fan if needed.**

  8. flush radiator fluid, be sure to bleed air. (high combustion chamber temps = higher NOx)

  9. still high NOx? try spark plugs a heat range colder. ie for b18a’s BCPR6E-11 (i use this daily since i live in a hot area), or BCPR7E-11 if youre already using 6’s.

  10. still high NOx? try a cooler thermostat.

**diagnostic and repair steps can be found in the helm’s manual or haynes manual (14.99 at pep boys)

–

CONCLUSION:

yesterday i failed with these results. your MEASURED should be less than the MAX to pass. i had the stock intake, neuspeed header, stock cat, exhaust, 14 BTDC, 87 octane:

Test measured at 15 MPH
HC MAX: 121 AVE: 30 MEASURED: 1275 FAIL
CO MAX: 0.76 AVE: 0.14 MEASURED: 0.89 FAIL
NO MAX: 1059 AVE: 206 MEASURED: 155 PASS

today i passed with these results. i had the stock intake, stock header, stock cat, exhaust, 14 BTDC, 87 octane, 3 bottles HEET fuel line anti-freeze:

Test measured at 15 MPH
HC MAX: 121 AVE: 30 MEASURED: 18 PASS
CO MAX: 0.76 AVE: 0.14 MEASURED: 0.16 PASS
NO MAX: 1059 AVE: 206 MEASURED: 83 PASS

basically,
HC old: 1275, new: 18;
CO old: 0.89, new: 0.16;
NO old: 155, new: 83;

as you can see, i passed with flying colors. i attribute the substantial drop in emissions to the HEET fuel line anti-freeze :clap:

UPDATE: you should be running a catalytic converter. a friend of mine just failed his re-test with his b18c5 and straight pipe with no change in results after adding HEET.

2

Originally posted by groc97
[B]About a month a ago I failed my emissions test. The only part I failed was the NOx ppm. I took it today and passed with ease. I only changed one thing:

This will pass the NOx ppm part of the emission.

My previous score was 1349, to pass i had to have less than 950. heres how. Snatch off your intake, and slap a sock on that mutha. Dropped my score from 1349 to 340. Take a sock and put it over you throttle. make sure you tighten it down with clamps or something. Depending on how far off you failed you might wanna slap 2 socks on that bytch. [/B]

3

Where have you guys been all my life!:cool:

ARCHIVE THIS!!!

4

or u can get real ghetto and find a guy named ninja that did my inspection and passed it wit no cat…forget the environment, i rather get some extra power

5

haha ninja. trust me i went all around town and no one wanted to even look at my car. one guy was even supposed to be a friend of a friend and he said they just got caught by an undercover ricer. fined like 2000 or something and are paranoid as hell. so unless youre really tight with the guy and he’s willing to take the chance with you, just bite it and put all the stock crap back in.

6

see i guess its different out heer. i went down to the city, brought one of my spanish friends in, and we talked to the guy and he charged me 80bucks to pass it…i failed by alot…i thought it was easier to do that then put all my othershit back in. but im glad to heer u passed n e way without good old ninja

7

my smog results

I didn’t want to start another thread…but I saw in your tips to use premium? I don’t think that’s right.
Premium fuel has higher octane so it burns slower. Sure it makes your car feel good if you have your timing advanced, but when going into smog, your timing should be at 16 ±2 degrees. (so probably at 14 degrees). You want to use shitty gas with low octane so it burns fast. I agree with everything else you said though. I haven’t tried the Heet gas line antifreeze but it makes sense.

I just passed my smog:) woohoo! They didn’t pop the hood, just tested my gas cap.
i/h/e msd, fpr, tb 120k miles

Limit / tested
HC Cruise: 160/38
CO% Cruise 1.1/.71
co+co2 cruise 6/15.51
o2% cruise NA/.49
cruise rpms 2820

HC Idle: 220/60
CO% idle: 1.2/.3
co+co2 idle: 6/15.6
o2% na/.27
rpm 850
:smiley:

8

or you could move to IA.

WTF is smog… hehe

9

quote:

Originally posted by groc97
About a month a ago I failed my emissions test. The only part I failed was the NOx ppm. I took it today and passed with ease. I only changed one thing:

This will pass the NOx ppm part of the emission.

My previous score was 1349, to pass i had to have less than 950. heres how. Snatch off your intake, and slap a sock on that mutha. Dropped my score from 1349 to 340. Take a sock and put it over you throttle. make sure you tighten it down with clamps or something. Depending on how far off you failed you might wanna slap 2 socks on that bytch.

So I went to inspection today in NJ and here are my numbers:

NOx - 1088 2541 FAIL
HC - 141 96 PASS
CO% - .79 .79 PASS

So, XDeep…I did just what you said.

Retarded the timing to 14 BTDC
Put in three bottles of HEET on a quarter tank and was fully warm.

Now, I know that high NOx could mean, high combustion chamber temps or lean injection.

What else could it be? Bad PCV? Bad CAT? (although I didnt think that the CAT did much for NOx emissions.

Why the hell would this damn sock thing work for NOx only?

  • Chris
10

http://people.ucsc.edu/~kbrandt/mustang/smog.shtml

The fundamental combustion reaction is as follows:

Gasoline + Oxygen => Carbon dioxide + Water
HxCyOz + O2 => CO2 + H20 (x, y and z vary with specific formulation)

If this were the only reaction that went on, we wouldn’t have a problem. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The gasoline and O2 must be present in the correct ratios. If there isn’t enough O2 (running rich), the combustion is incomplete and you get carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC). With too much O2 (running lean), a lean misfire will occur. This will cause very high levels of HC to be emitted even when the misfire is undetectable by the driver.

The other reaction that causes pollution is as follows:

Nitrogen + Oxygen => Oxides of Nitrogen
N2 + O2 => NO & NO2 (NOx)

This reaction will occur under conditions of high temperature and pressure. Unfortunately these are also the conditions that produce lots of power. Measures to reduce NOx are primarily responsible for the bad reputation of smog controls with auto enthusiasts.

There is one other gas that cars emit. It’s sulfur dioxide (SO2). This is a major component of ‘acid rain’. Since it’s primary cause is sulfur impurities in gasoline rather than engine conditions, there is no smog equipment associated with it.

PCV - Positive Crankcase Ventilation (1955)
This is the earliest system required on automobiles. It is required and all car from 1955 on. Prior to this, engines simply vented crankcase gasses to atmosphere. This wasn’t very effective. The oil would get contaminated by the byproducts of combustion that would blow by the rings. The heart of this system is the PCV valve. It is essentially a calibrated leak between the crankcase and the intake manifold. On a new engine, air is drawn in through the crankcase breather tube and through the PCV valve into the intake manifold. On an older engine with excess blowby, the PCV valve cannot draw all the crankcase gasses. The excess gas vents through the crankcase breather tube and into the air cleaner to be drawn into the engine.
The PCV valve is both a restricted orifice and a check valve. Generally, if it rattles when you shake it, the check valve is still working properly. This check valve function is to protect the engine in the event of a backfire through the intake. If it fails, a backfire would continue into the crankcase and blow most of the seals in the engine.

EGR - Exhaust Gas Recirculation (1975)
This is probably the reason people believe smog equipment equals no horsepower. EGR introduces exhaust gas into the intake manifold to reduce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) by reducing peak cylinder temperature and pressure. Unfortunately, high cylinder pressure equals power.
The heart of this system is the EGR valve. This is a vacuum actuated valve between the exhaust and intake. On a carbureted car it is usually run by ported (venturi) vacuum. This will mean the valve is closed at idle and will open as the air flow through the carburetor increases. Later computer controlled cars typically have a solenoid valve that cuts off the vacuum at WOT. This is a great addition since you can have lower NOx at part throttle without sacrificing full throttle performance.

Many smog check programs require a functional test of the EGR valve. It involves using a handheld vacuum pump to operate the valve at idle. The engine should have a noticeable drop in idle speed and may stall. Also the vacuum line should have vacuum on it at part throttle.

11

odd, no O2 sensor in that huge list of causes…

12

http://www.artsautomotive.com/thesmogstory.htm

What causes high HC (hydrocarbon)?
High HC is caused by incomplete combustion; in other words, the air and fuel that went in to the combustion chamber was not completely burned, now the unburned fuel has ended up in the tailpipe. Problems that can cause incomplete combustion include:

An ignition misfire. If a spark plug does not spark, the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber does not burn and then goes out the tailpipe.
Incorrect air fuel mixture. If there is not enough fuel in the combustion chamber to ignite, the fuel that is there goes out the tailpipe.
Low compression. If the compression is too low the air/fuel mixture will not ignite and the unburned fuel will go out the tailpipe.
A bad catalytic converter. The converter lives in the exhaust pipe and burns unburned gas as it passes through.
What causes high CO (carbon monoxide)? High CO is caused by a rich air/fuel mixture. The air fuel ratio should be 14.7 parts air to to 1 part fuel. Problems that can cause a rich mixture include:

Problems with the feedback system (the system that regulates the fuel being added to the engine based on the amount of oxygen in the exhaust).
Problems with a computer sensor such as the coolant temperature sensor, air flow meter, MAP sensor, etc…
Problems with the fuel pressure. Fuel pressure that is too high can cause a rich mixture.

What causes high CO2 (carbon dioxide)?
High CO2 is the product of a good running engine. The better your engine runs, the more CO2 it produces. The only way to reduce CO2 emissions is to buy a fuel efficient car. The bigger your gas guzzler, the more CO2 it makes. This is what’s so sad about the recent SUV trend. In addition to depleting the worlds oil reserves, and putting our country in a position where “we will go to war to protect our oil supply”, the trend of building increasingly inefficient behemoths is making the planet a less hospitable place for our species (and others) by contributing to global warming.

What causes high O2 (oxygen)?
High O2 can be caused by a lean air/fuel mixture, but most of the time, noticeably high O2 is caused by either a leak in the exhaust pipe allowing air to enter, or air injection pumping air into the exhaust (this is done on some cars to aid in the burning of HC). High O2 is not a problem unless the smog machine decides the exhaust sample is too diluted to use; in which case, the car may fail the smog test for dilution.

What causes high NOx (nitric oxide)?
NOx is not measured in our area currently, but if your car is registered in an enhanced area (an area that requires testing of NOx), you may run into this problem. High NOx is caused by high combustion temperatures and pressures. Problems that can cause high NOx include:

An inoperative EGR system. The EGR system was designed specifically to reduce NOx; that’s it’s only function. The EGR, which stands for Exhaust Gas Recirculation, allows exhaust gas to enter the combustion chamber through the intake. The exhaust gas has a cooling effect on the combustion chamber.
Over advanced ignition timing. The more advanced the ignition timing, the higher the combustion chamber temperatures.
Overheating. If the engine temperature is too high the NOx emissions will go up.
Lean air/fuel mixture. If the air/fuel mixture is too lean the combustion temperature will go up.
Compression over specification. Normally when we think of engines aging we think of the compression going down. However, there are a couple of ways the compression can increase as the engine is used. One is carbon buildup on the tops of the pistons. When carbon forms on the tops of the pistons, the combustion chamber area decreases and the compression ratio increases. The carbon can be manually scraped off the tops of the piston to correct this problem, but that would require disassembling the engine. Click here for cheap alternatives.
Mysterious reasons. Sometimes NOx is too high and there’s no obvious cause: the EGR works, the timing and advance work normally, the engine temperature is within range, the air fuel mixture is good, and the compression is within spec… When this happens you can try a little tweaking. If there are two thermostats listed for the car, use the cooler one. If there are two spark plugs listed for the car, use the cooler one. Retard the timing 2 degrees (the maximum allowed). Clear out the EGR passage even if the passage seems fine. Cross your fingers.

13

Originally posted by FAMILYG2
odd, no O2 sensor in that huge list of causes…

very odd. i just added it as number 5 thx.

14

NOTE: you should be running a catalytic converter. a friend of mine just failed his re-test with his b18c5 and straight pipe with no change in results after adding HEET.

15

saw this at http://www.insightcentral.net/encyclopedia/encatalytic.html

The lean NOx catalytic converter is comprised of a ceramic A1203 substrate, a platinum (Pt) catalyzing surface, and a titanium-sodium (Ti-Na) NOx storage surface.

During lean burn operation, the exhaust gas contains a larger percentage of oxygen (O2) and NOx, the NOx being primarily nitrogen monoxide (NO). The platinum catalyzes the O2 and NO to produce nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is able to be stored on the Ti-Na surface.

When it determines that the Ti-Na surface is saturated, the Insight temporarily richens the mixture. This action decreases the NOx and O2 in the exhaust, and raises the levels of hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO). The platinum is then able to use the HC and CO to catalyze the NO2 (that has been stored) into harmless nitrogen gas (N2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and

from this im gathering that running richer decreases NO but raises HC and CO; hence running leaner increases NO but lowers HC and CO. this would confirm what the other guy claimed about using a sock to lower NO, possibly by the sock restricting O2 and making it richer.

so depending on what your results were, you can play with your fuel if you have an adjustable fuel pressure regulator or direct access to your fuel tables in your ecu… or a sock and your imagination.

16

My cousin just did his emissions test and he was well below the levels of hc and co2 but the nox was alittle over. as a quick fix could he just remove the thermostat for the retest? I wanted to ask because you had said the car had to be fully warmed up. he is going to add the heet for the retest but I wasn’t sure about the thermostat.

17

hm i dunno if removing it would be worth the hassle. i’d probably look into increasing the fuel if the above theories were correct. the good ol sock, ecu editing, putting in a resistor inline with the air temp sensor, what else…

i dunno these are probably extremes, im sure the heet should be enough.

18

Overheating. If the engine temperature is too high the NOx emissions will go up.
That is something you wrote, that is why I’m confused wheather to lower the coolant temp or not by removel of the thermostat. Thanks

19

ah good call. ill delete that theory from the record.

20

sorry I didn,t mean to throw your words back at you like that. So I’m going to tell him to go ahead and remove it for the test. Thanks for your help.