AirCare ...

[Andrew Steele]

3mo ago I failed (only threw in one litre of Mh and left wg arm connected. runnin 94oct @ 15psi boost)

HC = 1.5184 (allowable 0.5) *fail*
CO = 1.3207 (allowable 9.32) *pass*
NOx = 3.4948 (allowable 1.24) *fail*

Cat was toast, got a new one (Thanks to Tommy @ Kinetic who did a great job in a very short amount of time) and have pulled the wg arm.  Gas light is currently on, i'll throw in $10 of 94 and some Mh again - hopefully will pass.  

Leaving in 1.5hrs to do the test, if anyone has some further suggestions, i'm open.

mods = EVO 16G, EVO O2, 3" turbo-back, 450's, whineborough 255hp, 2g maf, ported 1G intake mani, ported 2G exh mani.  

Thnx

[Andrew Scott]

Good luck?

With those numbers it looks like the new cat should solve your problems.

Keeping her warm in this wather shouldn't be too tough..

[John Hartman]

have you blocked off your EGR?  If so, and if you fail on NOx again, I suggest putting it back in.  It lowers part throttle intake temps and this lowers NOx readings.

as an aside, I found it lowers or eliminates part throttle tip-in knock too.

[Andrew Steele]

all factory emissions are still in place.

well, failed again - but I believe I know why.

HC = 0.5170 (allowable 0.5) *fail*
CO = 0.9561 (allowable 9.32) *pass*
NOx = 3.5924 (allowable 1.24) *fail*

runnin lean (hella lean).  So, will up fuel and retard timing... should help.

[John Hartman]

yep, those things will help you if you are lean.

do you have aftermarket cams in place?

or cam gears?  If you do,(gears) set your intake to straight up and your exhaust 4 deg advanced.  You will get better idle, better vac, better emission and better top end power too.

your HC is still pretty high for stock in that dept.  Last time I went thru I had 0.00 in driving HC.  I was pretty lean too, but my Nox wasn't as badly effected as yours.

Have you decarbonized your combustion chambers recently?

[Andrew Steele]

yeah, not sure why HCs are up.  No need to decarbonize the combustion chambers yet, rebuilt head went on not long ago .. heh

no aftermarket cams, no camgears.

[John Hartman]

oh, I just realized you don't have an adjustable pressure regulator,but you do have a big pump.  That could be your issue, as the car won't keep a steady tune.  I used to be able to watch my fuel trims change min by min.  I got lucky on my aircares but it could easily go the other way.

how are your injectors? needless to say, 1 or more injectors not spraying properly or not fully closing will cause alot of emissions related problems.

How about the injector o-rings?  big leaks there can cause drivability and air care problems.

Keep us posted.

Oh, ps, you DID drive your car on the hiway and get your cat fully lit correct?  I just ask because its such a common error and when one is in a rush to get a ton of things done, its easy.

[Andrew Scott]

The high NOx suggests that you are lean, while the high HC suggests that you are rich, so like John said, you may have somthing throwing off your tuning. What is your fuel/eng management system?

[Andrew Steele]

Fuel mgt = SAFCII (4button style)

Went about 5 more times after tweaking and a new O2. Still failing.

Now i'm consistantly stuck at a certain level.

HC = 0.8150 (to 8.672) (allowable 0.5) *fail*
CO = 1.2xxx (to 1.7xxx) (allowable 9.32) *pass*
NOx = 0.6xxx (to 0.9xxx) (allowable 1.24) *pass*

So, consistantly only Hydrocarbons are kickin me in the dink.

New cat, new O2, disconnected WG, 2G maf, SAFCII set to +10/+10 and CAS turned back (turned towards firewall)(from dead center of the bolt eyes) .5 to 2 cm.  My logger's being a whore right now, need to figure that out too.

According to the pretty graphs they print out for failures, i'm getting 75% of my HC's in the later part of the test. If anyone's seen (i can't find a pic right now) the lil diagram that shows what stage of the test you're going thru at what time (counted in seconds), it's mainly all during the big acceleration point and as they're cruising in 5th around 95km/hr.  

Their oh-so-handy booklet says high HCs are symptoms of the
-cat, o2 (both brand new),
-internal engine problem (highly unlikely, everything's been rebuilt recently and my compression tests are golden),
-vacuum leaks (this is very possible - never done a leakdown, don't have the resources - Jovan's gonna help me w/ this on Saturday),
-Ignition system (plugs, wires, etc.. don't appear to be the problem - currently running BPR7ES's and gap is still good, aurora 8.5mm wires that are about a year old.)
-Buggered injector(s) (possible ... running on stocker 450's)
Timing (possible, am going to re-set base timing tomorrow w/ Jovan's help)
-Buggered a/f mixture (well, I *am* monkeying around with it...)
-Fux0red EGR valve.  Not sure how to test this.  

I'm going to swap a clean 1G maf back in and zero-out my AFCII, re-set base timing (should I do +5 degrees?) and see if that will help.  Other than that, I don't really have any ideas.  Needless to say, very frustrated and discouraged.

I plan on posting my results upon passing (if I ever do  :? ) so others can possibly benefit.

[John Hartman]

see if you can borrow some very good shape 550 cc injectors from someone out there, ones that have good orings as well.

Leave in the 2g maf, its a much better calibrated, higher resolution piece.

with Jovan's help, do a leak test and set your base timing.  Set it to 3deg instead of 5, but use a light.

go for a logging run, in idle, and cruise in 3rd, 4th and 5th gear, try to simulate the part that is giving you trouble.  you might want to connect your wastegate arm as well, so that the car has some power.  If its a dog, the driver will have to have his foot in it much longer and harder.  If the car pulls up to speed easily, he is off the gas longer.

unburned HC's are not just from a rich condition, lots of things can cause the mix to not burn fully such as too much cam overlap.  If one or both of your bumpsticks is off a tooth, you can easily get this.  if your ign timing is wacked, this can also result.  No matter how lean you set it, you can still have unburned HC in your exhaust.

best of luck man .

[Andrew Steele]

See, I get conflicting reports of boost & aircare.

An uber tuner has told me that "all boost hurts you" (this was the reply to me asking if turning boost down to like 5psi or something would help or not).  While other's have gone in with boost and passed with flying colours.

More often than not, I see the driver struggling to keep the arrow green while accelerating durin the test,

Theoretically, a properly tuned engine should pass with boost.  So, is my setup that screwed??  It's during times like this that the idea of simple Civic (or similar) is quite appealing.

[John Hartman]

More often than not, I see the driver struggling to keep the arrow green while accelerating durin the test,

and this is with your turbo basically out of the loop?

[David Lee]

Sorry, I can't help with the current topic.  But I was wondering since we're talking about aircare, will they fail you for excessive noise caused by an o2 dump?

[Andrew Steele]

More often than not, I see the driver struggling to keep the arrow green while accelerating durin the test,

and this is with your turbo basically out of the loop?

Correct. Wastegate disconnected.  The turbo brings me out of vacuum and at WOT can build 1 or 2 psi, but that's it.

[KevinBuckham]

Once you check your baset timing, and verify that you really aren't running rich, I can lend you my old stock 450cc injectors.  Not that they are perfect (but I had no issues with them), it might rule out your injectors being the culprit.

How well is your O2 sensor cycling?  Does it look like it's on it's last legs? If it is cycling a bit slow you could run rich for a little while after coming off power.   I can lend you my old O2 sensor as well.  It wasn't dead yet either, but it could allow you to narrow the problem down further.

Good luck.