Emission Testing

[MrMarquis]

My car failed the emissions...And now it is going through its tune up. They told me that they narrowed the problems to the catalytic converters.

Now they can do one of two things...

A system clean out; cleaning the combustion ports, the injector heads, all the way through the cats...Running some Aamco Gold stuff through it...For $450. This does not guarantee its passing.

Or they can replace the cats for $1500...

The guy told me that my car has four cats...Is this true? I've never been under my car and everything is original on it.

What should I do? Would it be worth that kind of money to replace the cats if they are original?

**Update** Okay, they are trying to rip me off with the catalytic replacement. Cats are only about $110 or so...And I can replace the four with two...That is not going to cost $1500, even with four new cats.

[Blaze86Vic]

This should be moved to the tech area.

Yes cats go bad, yes you have 4, yeah you probably need to replace them anyways. They are likely clogged as well and will give you some of your lost power back as well. And if they aren't then when they run the cleaner though the engine it will flush all the crap out and then your cats will definitly be clogged.

$1500 HOLY FUCKING HELL!!! Don't trust that moron. $1500 is a brand new reman engine.

[nitroracer]

Thats quite a rip off...

If you have the time find a mustang H-pipe with cats and mustang headers. Little better flowing and easy to find used and cheap.

If you need it back on the road asap get two new cats and have them welded in. Eliminate the extra pair.

[88Vic]

Time to switch over to dual exhaust. The stock 2" system with 2 high flow cats and better flowing mufflers will really wake up your car from that awfull single exhaust.

[mrltd]

1500? the cats aren't more than 300 for both sides IIRC!

A tune up and some injector cleaner would help, and is prolly about 50 bucks worth of parts and can be done in 2-3 hours by you.

[MrMarquis]

Sorry Blaze, I was in a rush, and posted it here just to get it out there. If it needs to be moved, that is fine with me. Sorry for the bit of extra work.

I've already run injection cleaner through my car; that was about a month or so ago. I've got BP Premium in it now, since it is supposed to burn cleaner.

I'd like to get dual pipes, but I don't have any of the tools needed to install them myself; I can't do much of anything to my car with what I have. And a slanted driveway isn't the best place to work on it either...

AND I'M SO PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW...THE SHOP I TOOK MY CAR TO FOR AN OIL CHANGE WITH ADDITIONAL EMISSION TUNE UP...FORGOT TO CHANGE MY OIL! :stfu1: :stfu1: :stfu1: :cuss:

[91LTDProject]

you could try finding a direct vacumn line to the intake and run about a litre of water through it after the engines hot. dip the tube you have hooked up to the vacumn line in the water quickly, pull it out, dip it in, ect till the waters gone. like a steam cleaning for your engine. You cant suck up to much tho, or bad things happen (hydrolock) works miracles on e-tests, i've seen lots of failures pass doing this. And it sounds to me like that shops bendin yo over backwards man.

[mrltd]

Sorry Blaze, I was in a rush, and posted it here just to get it out there. If it needs to be moved, that is fine with me. Sorry for the bit of extra work.

I've already run injection cleaner through my car; that was about a month or so ago. I've got BP Premium in it now, since it is supposed to burn cleaner.

I'd like to get dual pipes, but I don't have any of the tools needed to install them myself; I can't do much of anything to my car with what I have. And a slanted driveway isn't the best place to work on it either...

AND I'M SO PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW...THE SHOP I TOOK MY CAR TO FOR AN OIL CHANGE WITH ADDITIONAL EMISSION TUNE UP...FORGOT TO CHANGE MY OIL! :stfu1: :stfu1: :stfu1: :cuss:

You should stop by my house over the weekend and I could take a look at it.


And unfortunatley using the main vacuum line only will clean the back two cylinders. Pulling the air filter elbow off and spraying intake/carb cleaner into the TB will distribute the cleaner better. The only issue is that it can loosen so much shit up and it'll clog the cats.

[gabegt90]

hey scott let scott (lincolnmanina) work on your car trying changing plugs new wires oil regular tune up stuff Why did it fail emissions? too much hydrocarbons? sucks about your cats mang exhaust is'nt cheap

[bruno]

Too bad youre not in PA, I could give you a waiver :P

Get a custom DP and cat system with an Hpipe. 2 cats, one on each bank, youll be good to go!

[MrMarquis]

hey scott let scott (lincolnmanina) work on your car trying changing plugs new wires oil regular tune up stuff Why did it fail emissions? too much hydrocarbons? sucks about your cats mang exhaust is'nt cheap

Plugs, wires, and distributor cap are all new. I get regular oil changes...This is the first one I've been late for (and they forgot to change my oil...).

It doubled the smog NOx regulations. This is the first time the car has failed to my knowledge. The previous owners had no problems with it.


Mike; I might have to take you up on that offer...What are you doing Sunday?

[gadget73]

For $1500 you could have a really nice exhaust from engine to tailpipes with brand new cats. Thats insane. What exactly failed, CO, HC or NOx ? Having the readings would help narrow down the problem somewhat.

[91LTDProject]

NOx is caused by too high of temperatures in the combustion chambers. Most common problems I see cause this are a malfunctioning EGR valve, malfunctioning O2 sensors (running the motor lean causing high heat, are the HC and CO levels low) fucked up catalyltic converters, carbon deposits in the combustion chambers, or just a engine in bad need of tlc. If the cats are the culprit, theres not much you can do other than replace them. Theres a large number of chemicals you could run through the engine to clean it out, but your gonna have to run at least a full tank of gas through your car after any type of cleaning, cause the chemicals stick around for a while till you burn them out completely. thats why I use water, not as effective as some cleaners, but leaves nothing behind. When I have a car that failed NOx, I will run it on the dyno cold, with the air filter out and the big ass fan blowing right into the airbox. Sometimesthis helps, sometimes not. Post your allowed levels and the levels your car got, might help a bit. And about the main vacumn line,I didnt know that, I dont think the main line when I ran some water through mine, and whenever I use real carbon cleaner I spray it through the throttle body. Though I did a before and after run on my own car after a can of carbon cleaner and it was only a few ppm lower.

[mrltd]

Prolly nothing, might work on the wagon if it's decent and I pull the injectors from my old HO saturday.

[gabegt90]

I can come by too and offer some help to scott if needed