If you live in Cali then you know what a Pain in the *** the smog laws, etc are here. To make a long story short, I have a Bone Stock 2nd Gen b16a in my sled right now, and I am trying to pass Smog at a State Ref BAR Stamp Cert Station(where you get the BAR stickies for your ride).

I failed the Smog, but just barely... and I need some help/advice for getting my car to just run a hair cleaner for this damn test.

Heres a pic of my failed smog printout:


As you can see, I failed the Visual because of CEL (Knock Sensor) that I had never seen before then.

I failed the 15 MPH test due to too many HC's (Hydro Carbons), but everything else was fine.

I passed the 25mph test, but JUST BARELY. Again, the HC's are borderline failure. The max # PPM you can have is 59 and I measured 59.


So... heres the Skinny on my car, a 93 Civic Si:
-Bone Stock 2nd gen b16a. Running a stock JDM P30 ECU.
-Timing was set at 17 degrees. I eyeballed the dizzy at 0, but I guess I was off a hair.
-Stock Cat, in perfect working order.
-Ran Chevron 89 Octane during the test.


If I am not mistaken, Timing is at 0 at 14 degrees... but the Ref said 0 was at 16 degrees. So which is it?
You can run +/- 2 degrees when testing.. so obviously I am going to retard the timing as much as possible for the test.


So, does anybody else have any input on what I can do to make my car run extra clean for the test????

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

BTW, Ive done some reading on other threads about the same problem i am having with my knock Sensor. The CEL light seems to come on once the car is hot. The other threads seem to say obviously the first thing to do is check to see if the plug is loose and/or see if the KS is screwed in tight.

Has anybody else ever had the same problem? I have not personally seen to many KS's go bad.

Thanks again.

 

i know place...hehe

 

sure you do. k. thanks for your help.

anybody else?

 

retard timing and bump the idle up to the max which I think is 900 or 1000. Make sure that the engine is nice and warm before going to the smog man. The Cat must be HOT to operate at it's full potential. Run 91 octane

 

Running a higher octane will add more pollutants to the exhaust (more unburnt fuel) so that wont help. I actually want down my octane.

As far as the idle.. that doesnt matter. You run 2 tests, one at 15mph and one at 25mph on the dyno.

As far as the cat... I know it has to be red hot. I dont know to say.. "hey, can you run my car while the cat is red hot? K. Thanks" to the smog ref.

 

running a higher octane won't add pollutants into the exhaust...

anywayz... here's my theory that's not really based on anything since i don't have your car to diagnose in front of me.
it's possible that one or more injectors are clogged causing that cylinder(s) to run lean causing a higher than normal nox. since that cylinder(s) is essentially pumping out air, the 02 reads the exhaust as lean and increases the injector pulses to the other cylinders to richen the mixture.