pnoye2

I'm glad you've got this addressed whyteLegend

 

regggindnas

Hey I'm gonna ask a really stupid question so bear with me please. I didn't pass emmisions because my HC's are too high. They're at 169 and in the state of washington they're supposed to be 150. Besides putting in new spark plugs, new wires, new distributor cap; is there anything else that could be the problem?

Any help would be much appreciated.

sam o nela

High HC could mean you need a new catalytic converter...

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regggindnas

Ok I never thought of that...


Anything else?

murderotica

Uhh the cat is probably a winner. I had a high HC count as well (162 I believe; also in WA) and I tried everything short of replacing the cat to fix it but none of it lowered the HC count (the last time it was higher actually).

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roostonu

High HC's with high CO means rich mix.
High HC's with low CO means lean mix.
Two very different problems with the same high HC result.
There isn't one right answer.
Vacuum leaks cause extra O2 and a high O2 readings, which cause lean conditions and high HC's. The high HC's are unburned fuel and the unburned fuel is caused by either a lean missfire/incomplete burn or a rich condition.
CO tells you what your mix is, and HC's tells you how complete the burn is. A rich condition will also leave unburned fuel but will increase CO readings. My smog liscence has been expired for a few years but I was liscensed for 10 years and been repairing cars for 21 years. The only reason I let it expire is because I only wrench part time now, so it wasn't worth it to me to continue with re-training and re-testing.

The most common problems causing high NOx(oxides of nitrogen) are,
1. heavy carbon deposits on pistons, raising compression ratio/combustion temp.
2. Weak CAT
3. Inoperative EGR system. The sole purpose is to lower combustion temp. but the EGR is funtion checked on a smog check so that should be obvious if that is the problem.

Slightly elevated NOx can simply be a bad/weak CAT with no underlying problems and almost all engines even when running properly produce some NOx.

Carbon deposits may raise the level just enough to uncover a weak CAT because a good CAT will clean up alot of NOx. I've seen many cars fail for high NOx that passed after a Sea Foam treatment. If you O2 sensor is reading properly, that means the mix is correct. If cleaning the carbon doesn't change the NOx you need a CAT. This is all assuming your EGR system funtions properly, but like I said this is function checked on a smog test in California.