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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / November 2004fuel additives before emissions test
I am presuming its not a good idea to have additives in ones fuel before going to the emissions inspection station. What good additives are there that actually work for cleaning injectors and deposits on valves. IMHO I think STP products suck in this area. While on the subject of emissions, is there one brand of gas better than another for emisisons, or is it solely up to the vehicle to decide? P.S. I plan on burning down the fuel and topping off with untreated gas before testing... >I am presuming its not a good idea to have additives in ones fuel before >going to the emissions inspection station. >What good additives are there that actually work for cleaning injectors and >deposits on valves. IMHO I think STP products suck in this area. From my logical guess on the procedure, STP dissolves deposits in the fuel line, injector, and intake valves. The solvent then combusts and super-heats the combustion chamber, causing all deposits to char & fly out the exhast, similar to what happens in a self-cleaning oven. The result of a higher-temperature engine is a several-hundred point spike in NOx emissions, which is what I experienced after adding STP to the gas in my engine. Make sure your car does not have STP additives in the gas before going to inspection. >While on the subject of emissions, is there one brand of gas better than >another for emisisons, or is it solely up to the vehicle to decide? Whatever the car was designed for. If it likes the crappy 87 then give it 87. I would recommend BP gas but thats just a personal opinion. Let us know what emission is giving you trouble. Dan >>I am presuming its not a good idea to have additives in ones fuel before >>going to the emissions inspection station. [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Dan I had writen about it some time ago. It was on my old 86 Jaguar, which I really only am driving just to get it through this darn test then I'll go back to driving my truck for the winter. I had hi HC, way hi,like 1200 becuase I accidentally put weedwacker gas from a gas can in it. Well, after using "garanteed to pass" and Lucas additives I got it down to about 500 and then found that the charcoal vacuum switch was missing and the vacuum hoses were misconfigured with another reducer. A kind individual sent me a spare part (used) and I have since gotten this thing to run in what seems to be NOT as lean as it once was. It's got some pep and the idle is a few hundred rpms higher and smoother. It still isn't totally ok, and has some other issue but it is 25% better than it was. The other emmissions readings were within tolerance. You guys gave me a pretty good primer on the lean conditions etc. I have a small exhaust leak but not too terrible. some people fill up with gas containing ethanol before going for an emissions test in an attempt to get a cleaner burning fuel. I don't know what effect the 5% enthanol could be expected to have on emissions. someone recently posted that flushing the cooling system with a chemical clearer brought down the nitrogen emissions enough for the car to pass a retest. I'm planning on trying it as my car just passed the NOx last time. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned >someone recently posted that flushing the cooling system with a chemical >clearer brought down the nitrogen emissions enough for the car to pass a >retest. I'm planning on trying it as my car just passed the NOx last time. I posted it...I had used Prestone Coolant Flush to clean an 11-year old system that was never even flushed before, let alone cleaned. I didn't think I needed it, since the previous inspection was 300 (1700 allowed), but this flush brought NOx down to almost nothing...I think it was 47 (out of 1713 allowed). If this doesnt work, you might need a cat replacement (I needed one a few years ago), or an EGR inspection. If you replace the cat then replacing the O2 sensor is also a good idea. What came out during the flush was brown/green coolant (more brown than green). The first fill was with a distilled water/cleaner mix, and drove around the block (6 miles up here). The second fill ("rinse cycle") was with distilled water only. The temp gauge stayed very low for an extremely long period of time during a second tour around the block. The final fill was with 60/40 distilled water/antifreeze, tolerant down to -15F. The temp gauge is now (at operating temperature) a few notches lower than before the flush. Try to find a environmentally-friendly place to dump the old anti-freeze. Neither the local Advance nor the local Autozone would take it, even though they brag in big posters out front that they take oil and batteries. It took me a while but I finally found the local dump had a big green tank for the stuff, open all year round, and it was free. As for finding distilled water, it should be fairly easy to find a couple hardware stores selling it for a dollar per gallon. The collant flush is available anywhere prestone products are sold. Dan >>someone recently posted that flushing the cooling system with a chemical >>clearer brought down the nitrogen emissions enough for the car to pass a [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > > Dan Emissions test again this week. I am going to do the following, since my last test failure. 1. I have installed a missing item up near the charcoal canister which was "disabled" by someone in the past. This was not the taking tank gases into the system and was justleft open at the time. The vacuum was closed off with a screw in the hose. 2. I have been running fuel line cleaner all week wcich a tad of octane boost in it. 3. I have changed the oil and filter (noticed it runs cooler) 4. I have 4 bottles of "gas dryer" I will put in the day of the test, but will have normal fuel in there otherwise with no more cleaners. I'll see if I can judge this to have about a few % ratio in the alcohol. 5. I am going to hopefully do the "flush" on the coolant today and close up an exhaust joint which is leaking a bit. It is a nice day out. 6. I have done all the other things. Breather filter change, plugs, wires, rotor, cap. With everything I have done so far, my RPM's are actually up about 100-200 or so about where they are supposed to be and it is running smoother. The current failure is in my HC readings. I have 173,000 on this 86 Jag. That is a feat in itself. :) The radiator has never been flushed since I have had it. > Emissions test again this week. > I am going to do the following, since my last test failure. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > gases into the system and was justleft open at the time. The vacuum was > closed off with a screw in the hose. Good. The first step towards correcting a smog failure is to put all the stock equipment in working order. > 2. I have been running fuel line cleaner all week wcich a tad of octane > boost in it. There are three good combustion chamber and fuel injector cleaners: BG 44K, Chevron Techron concentrate, and RedLine SI-1. The little bottles of "fuel line cleaner with octane boost" you can get at the parts store are worthless. > 3. I have changed the oil and filter Always a help. > 4. I have 4 bottles of "gas dryer" I will put in the day of the test, Instead of futzing around trying to fool the test with alcohol, figure out what's causing the failure and fix it. This car should have no trouble passing the test *if* everything's working correctly and in good condition. It will pay you to find and fix the problem instead of masking it, for fuel economy virtually always goes up when smog failures are fixed. > The current failure is in my HC readings. I have 173,000 on this 86 > Jag. How many of those miles are on the original catalyst(s)? >>Emissions test again this week. >>I am going to do the following, since my last test failure. [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > > How many of those miles are on the original catalyst(s)? To my knowledge, this is the original catalyst. Thanks for the info on the additives. I'll presume that the catalyst is on borrowed time? >>> The current failure is in my HC readings. I have 173,000 on this 86 >>> Jag. >> How many of those miles are on the original catalyst(s)? > To my knowledge, this is the original catalyst. Mmm. That's a lotta miles on a catalyst, and even more miles on an Oxygen sensor. The O2 Sensor on your '86 is a maintenance item, and if it's been more than 50k miles or so since you last replaced it, you're due. They are not expensive or difficult to replace. The catalytic converter at 173k miles would be operating at considerably lower efficiency than when new. DS |
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