Date:         Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:31:22 -0700
Reply-To:     Steven P Smith <kewsps@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steven P Smith <kewsps@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: CA Smog Failed - 1985 1.9L
Comments: To: Walter Houle <whoule@ecscontrols.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

 Walter, 
 
If your injectors are 23 years old they could be a fire hazard. Many Vanagons have been been lost to fire from old injectors and old fuel lines. Many on this board would strongly urge you to change all fuel lines 1st thing and I would agree. I believe this is the place I got my cat from. You might give him a call. I'm sure the group of Vanagon online vendors can help you out though.  They are all very knowledgable and helpful.http://europarts-sd.com/ I'm still suspicious of your low CO number though. .04 should be closer to .1 or .2. I believe this can burn out a cat, because they get too hot.  You might try running some Techron Fuel Injector cleaner through your fuel system to clean the injectors as little. http://www.amazon.com/Chevron-Techron-Fuel-System-Cleaner/dp/B00092893E I was recommended to me and did help, but in the end I was still running too lean, and the plugs showed it. I replaced the injectors with rebuilds from GoWesty and now my plugs are a nice toasty brown, and my mileage is 18 in town and +20 on the highway.  I don't know where you are located, but you might need a Vanagon specific shop to get your engine set up properly. Here in Sacramento, we are lucky to have Stephens Auto Haus. You might give him a call.http://stephansautohaus.com/ Steven


Subject: RE: CA Smog Failed - 1985 1.9LDate: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:15:25 -0700From: whoule@ecscontrols.comTo: kewsps@hotmail.com


Thanks Steven - 
 
Those are some good smog numbers.
I'll look into the injectors. They've never been serviced in 23 years ......
My shop says that any tune up or injector issues would show up in the test results.
They say the problem is most likely my brand new catalytic converter. I'm not sure if I believe this, but I am looking into it.
Do you recall what brand your converter is or where you got it?
 
Thanks,
Walter


From: Steven P Smith [mailto:kewsps@hotmail.com]Sent: Thu 6/26/2008 6:19 PMTo: Walter Houle; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COMSubject: Re: CA Smog Failed - 1985 1.9L
Walter,I think high NOx is due to running too lean, which raises combustion temps.CO% = 0.04 could be an indication of too lean as well.Perhaps you need to clean your fuel injectors. Both injectors on each bankare needed to supply the proper fuel mix to each cylinder. One weak fuelinjector will cause the engine to run lean on that side w/o much symptom inmy experience.Take out the the plugs and see if they are a toasty brown color or white onthe insulator. If white => too lean. You can get rebuilt injectors from theonline suppliers list. I tried a local machine shop for a good cleaning andwas not happy. You need someone who really understands injectors to get asatisfactory result.The new catalytic converter also needs to be approved for CA as well,specifically to achieve lower NOx.My last SMOG check on my '84 1.9 yielded a 15 mph CO% of .12 and NOx of 116and a 25 mph CO% of .2 and NOx of 81. I was once a gross polluter.BTW: once you are labeled a gross polluter in CA, you can get the state topay for some or all of the repairs. You just need to talk to an approvedrepair shop, no other requirement.Not an expert,good luckSteven
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