So i gather there are 3 ways to get my single turbo FD smog approved:

1. get corvette airpump and temporarily install it
2. denatured alchohol
3. move somewhere else

I think i would prefer to do option 1. Does anyone have any experience with this? My first results were about double the limit.

Thanks,
Brian

 

or you can get a waiver.

 

i think im missing too many other parts to get a waiver. every bit of emissions has been stripped except the main cat which i put back on there just to get tested. Does anyone know what they look for when they do the inspection for a waiver? I suspect they will look under my hood and laugh.

 

You have to do regular emissions first. If it eventually doesn't get passed, they offer you to get your car fixed from one of their approved emissions specialists. The place you go to get it "fixed" needs to be at least $150 in repairs. If after you try to fix it and run the emissions test again and you fail, they will waive it.

 

register your car at a friends/relitaves/complete strangers house thats not in the emmision zone.

 

Here are rules:

"Your car can qualify for a waiver if:

• You spent $150 or more on emission-related repairs done by an authorized emission specialist.

• You can provide the test station manager with the repair receipts signed by an authorized emission specialist.

• It's proven that none of your vehicle's emission-related equipment has been altered.

• Your vehicle flunks a second emission test after repairs.

The waiver allows you to still register your vehicle for the upcoming year."



I just did this a few months ago. When I went back to get the waiver, after having the attempted repairs done, and failed the second test, the inspector actually pops the hood and takes a look. He spotted my Greddy intake and then went inside to look it up on a list. He found it on an "approved" list and so I got the waiver. Fortunately, a pre-cat is hard to find even if the inspector knows what one is. I have a Bonez high-flow cat in place and he didn't even bother to look at it. Of course the emissions repair person noted on the repair order that the catalytic converter was in place.

So, I'm going to have to spend $150 on service every two years to license my car. Not too bad because I can always pay Jerry to change plugs, etc and get another waiver, but I think I'll try the denatured alcohol thing the next time.

 

I dunno, I went to the emissions station in my FD, and they were like "rotary.." and stuck the car on the dyno without plugging some of the stuff in. The CO2 and HC numbers were way higher than my honda (which fails frequently), and I got the "pass".

I'm not terribly sure what the deal is, but I assume that the standards are far more lax for our breatheren than others. I guess I'll find out this year when I take her in for emissions testing again.

 

yeah, i went once and totally failed. If they popped the hood like they did dhays, the is no way in hell i could pass. i have a giant vmount and a gt40 with all the supporting mods.

Has anyone used the corvette airpump with good results?

 

I got through with my 1st gen with no emissions at all. I cobbled together an exhaust behind my RB header, using a Spec 7 catalytic, took the stock Mazda air pump, and plumbed in right into the catalytic. Ran about a quart of RC car fuel in half a tank of gas and got through first time. When the tech looked under the hood, I though for sure I was busted, since I had removed every piece of smog equipment. They did not say a word.

 

Which one did you go to? I have to do my emissions this year.

Thanks!

Mike

 

So I swapped my spark plugs and added a gallon of denatured alky to a quarter tank of gas. I also leaned out the tune a bit. Looks like ill need an airpump or more alky. Results from round 2:

Cruise HC: 74, limit 150, PASS
Cruise CO%: .06, limit 1.1, PASS

Idle HC: 560, limit 220, FAIL
Idle CO%: 1.39, limit 1.2, FAIL...barely

 

throw the airpump on and do again with it pumping air out the exhaust

 

only problem is i dont have an airpump trying to get one though.

 

when i got the waver for my fb, i popped the hood and the tech goes "What am i looking at?"

 

That sums up the rotary world right there.

 

hmmm idk about an fd one. im sure one of the fd guys have one you could buy or burrow

 

im looking for a corvette airpump since the mechanical fd one wont fit anymore. Corvette one is electric so i can put it wherever i want.

 

Holy crap I passed! No airpump needed! So, before I was going to plop down 150$ on an airpump, i decided to see how lean i could get my idle. Well, with and extra 20* advance at idle i was able to get it down to 17:1 afr. Now im not gonna recommend you run that every day but for this one test it worked brilliantly. The other thing i took advantage of was the fact that they cant tell how many RPM you are at. I used this fact to my advantage by raising the idle to about 1100-1200 so i could run such a high afr.

Test results:

Cruise HC: 53, limit 150, PASS
Cruise CO%: 0.00, limit 1.1, PASS

Idle HC: 41, limit 220, PASS
Idle CO%: 0.00, limit 1.2, PASS

Comments? Questions? Im stoked.

 

Congrats Brian! When you gonna take me for a ride?

 

where did you test it at. The one I go to in redmond always checks the rpm and doesn't let you hit the gas. I hope you didn't drive very hard with a 17:1 ratio

 

I went to the one in redmond and the one off i90. Neither of them were able to correctly determine my RPM. The 17:1 was only at idle, everything else was normal.

 

man, im not even gonna pull the numbers up from my emissions test but lets just say they were A LOT worse than that on idle limits so its in the shop til tomorrow and then i get to go fail again and get a waiver lol

 

oh yeah i forgot to add i took mine to the one in redmond and the guy there just goes "oh god another rx7, good luck man" hahaha

 

I'm assuming you used a programmable ECU to dial that in? I failed badly on idle, HC 612, limit 220 and CO2% 3.46, limit 1.2.

I went back and looked at my test results and noted that RPMs are just listed as "N/A". Am I right that they simply can't tell RMP on the rotaries? They can't get at the plugs, the sensor that they plug into the lighter doesn't work, so while my car idled at 700-800 during the test, I don't see any reason why I might not be able to get away with running idle up around 1100-1200 as you did.

Of course, I don't know HOW to adjust the idle on my FD, but hey, just details right? So getting the car warmed up really well, mixing in some denatured alcohol, playing with the idle, and hoping that my newer Bonez cat may help.

 

Interesting information.. I'm going to be trying my luck tomorrow with my S5. Has no air pump, cats, full 3" exhaust, etc. Due to an "out of spec" TPS my car idles ~1000-1500RPM almost all the time. I'm to try the whole add 1gal. of denatured alchohol to my quarter tank of gas trick to see if it works. Going to the station on Aurora. Hope it works. Will post results when I know.