Emissions Help

[DJH]

Hello to everyone out there.

My 87 Turbo T Limited recently failed a chicago emissions test

The results of the emissions test were as follows;

HydroCarbon Actual Reading = 6.15 (2.00 = passing grade)
Carbon Monoxide (CO) Actual Reading = 33.6 (30.0 = passing grade)
Carbon Monoxide (CO2) Actual Reading = 500.3

The car is basically stock with 15 original miles on it.

Sometimes I get a strong smell of gas when I start the car up and it seems to be using more gas than it should on trips so it may be "running rich"

Before I take it to a mechanic to troubleshoot I wanted to ask the experts on this board what are the possible causes (usual suspects) of my emissions problems.

Any help or info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dan

 

[Sal Lubrano]

Do you have a scantool? Knowing what the ECM is seeing will be a great help.
Sal

 

[DJH]

Emmisions Help

Thanks for your reply Sal.

The car has 15k (not 15) miles on it as my typo above suggests.

Unfortunately I do not have a scan tool so I am unable to give you more detailed info on my emmisions issue.

Are there ever any "usual suspects" though that often cause emmisions problems or can it be a bunch of different things?

Happy Holidays to everyone!

 

[Sal Lubrano]

You really need a scan tool. Here are two sites that show you how to build them for pennies or you can purchase a scanmaster for $250.

http://www.turbometerpro.com/

http://web.telia.com/~u60505093/index.htm


It can be many things. Have you changed the plugs? Do you have a check engine light on? If you knew the cross counts then we could tell if it is a O2 sensor. Maybe a bad MAF sensor need to know the Block learn (BLM). Possibly an EGR. A bad Catalitic converter. You can still pass emmisions with a bad converter but every little bit helps. All the info you can give is helpfull. Sorry but without seeing some info. Maybe if you post in the tech section you will get more views and help. Maybe some one in your area will responds and have a tool to hook up to help you.
Sal