Hello fellow Honda peeps! So my '97 stock del Sol VTEC failed smog.... It's got the original cat, so that will probably need to go but it would be nice to not have to do it for another couple of years. Any input on what to try will be appreciated. Does the high O2 reading indicate an exhaust leak?
More car details:
- 168K miles
- new plugs, wires, cap, rotor (all Honda and the prescribed plugs)
- new timing belt since last smog (which was close) and not sure about timing
- running 91 octane

Things I'm planning on doing
- check timing and adjust to recommended (or should I make it more advanced / retarded?)
- add 87 gas to my 1/2 tank of '91 (?)
- we agreed to warm up the cat before the run

Thanks for the input!

 

Getting a new catalytic converter would be the answer. It should drop the reading quite a bit and it works better the hotter it gets.
And also having timing correct and yes, 87 gas should help more..
Years ago, took my old winter beater through testing and failed miserably, new universal cat slapped on, re-ringed the motor because it was drinking the oil and a week later got tested again. I got a WOW from the tech, 0's on nearly everything. Cheap 87 gas too..

 

Failed Smog: What causes high emissions, HC,CO,NO | JUST SMOGS® + REPAIR
you will notice in the above article that ignition timing is mentioned for both Hig HC and High NO. Verify that the timing belt is not a tooth off (easy to screw it up, been there done that), replace or clean the inside of the distributor cap, get a timing light and check the distributor timing. and for the love of god GET THE CAT HOT before the sniff test. The hotter the cat gets, the better (up to a point of course). At 168k miles, unless you are burning a lot of oil I doubt the cat is bad

 

Amazingly... passed almost with flying colors! Incredible reduction in numbers after about 15 minutes sitting in the car with the engine running at 2-2.5K RPMs. This should be the standard method for testing. I was almost ready to drop a grand on this old "beater" but can now hold off another couple of years. I'll try to do the same thing every time I get my Sols tested now.