Tale of Two Smog Checks

[Saudade]

Well, it's that time again to renew my reg with the biannual smog check. I know my mileage has been pretty poor (like 10 mpg city) and I've been having an intermittent issue with #3 fuel injector.

So as usual, I get it smogged first to establish a baseline, see what's out and go from there. Here are my first test results.

So not to drag this out too far, I ended up putting my stock injectors back in instead of the 19# Ford Mustang. Getting those stubborn little guys out was a chore. A few of the pintle covers didn't make it. Not sure what happened to them. I tried to vacuum out any pieces that may have fallen into the manifold. I did change the filters and orings on the stockers. I also rigged up a nozzle on some TB cleaner to flush them out. I did pinch one of the orings in the rail, so I had quite a leak for a bit.

I replaced my O2 sensor with an NTK, replaced my IAC, my EGR Transducer and adjusted my TPS. The injectors got all new EV1 connectors. I opened up the main harness all the way back to the C101 connector and found a few bare spots on the #3 injector B+. I also refreshed all the grounds.

During all of this, I noticed some oil around the base of the distributor. I figured if I had to pull it to fix the leak, I might as well buy a new one with sync sensor, cap and rotor. Good thing I did. The innards were pretty trashed. I wrote that one up in this thread:

https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1159024

So now new distributor, cap, rotor, plug wires as well.

Somewhere along the way I found a few small vac leaks with my homemade smoke tester (vac line with a beach ball inflator end and a good cigar). Stuck my shop vac hose over the end of my exhaust pipe, set on blow, to feel for any exhaust leaks. Found a loose joint after the cat. Replaced the clamp.

All in all, what a job. This has been going on for the past 3 weeks since my first smog test. Here are the results from today.

PTL!! Good for 2 more years.

 

[AAubinoe]

Awesome, they dont want you to do this, they want you to junk it! Can you fix the pictures? I recently got a 1990 that runs, but a but poorly. Read that the first thing to do on a neglected RENIX is the vacuum harness. Which is made new still.

 

[Saudade]

Oops, sorry about the pics. Should be OK now

 

[my2monkeys]

How come the MAX Limits differ from the 1st test to the 2nd?

 

[Saudade]

How come the MAX Limits differ from the 1st test to the 2nd?

Great question!! For some reason, the system thought it was a 1987 on the first test. I took it to the same place and the 2nd time it was a 1988. Oddly enough, my test 2 years prior was the reverse. 1988 on first test (failed) 1987 on retest (passed even with the lower '88 numbers). I thought the year was calculated off the VIN but maybe was an input error.

I have all of my smog test reports back to 2004.

 

[89Mock]

Where were the vacuum leaks you fixed? I just found one at my evap canister.

 

[Saudade]

I found a few. One was at that big junction block for all those vac lines. It was the line that went to the EGR. Another was for the evap canister. The soft line runs to a hard line on the firewall uses some kind of crimp clamp. The clamp was loose so I just pinched it more with some wire cutters.

 

[blu3fan]

I found a few. One was at that big junction block for all those vac lines. It was the line that went to the EGR. Another was for the evap canister. The soft line runs to a hard line on the firewall uses some kind of crimp clamp. The clamp was loose so I just pinched it more with some wire cutters.

I bought some Silicone vacuum line and I've been "repairing" the holes by cutting the hard-line and sticking bits of it to bridge the two plastic bits.
Probably just gonna run a full silicone line at some point and Just T everything in with new. I would recommend

 

[Saudade]

I've used some heat shrink tubing where lines broke. No gap between ends.

"One day" I'll bypass that junction block. The "next day" I'll ditch the C101 connector.

 

[Black1990jeep]

for me on my 90 renix, the fat hard hoses on that vacuum block kept coming out of the block, so I slipped some hose over the two ends of the tube to couple them together rather than run them thru that silly block. What got me, is that when they come loose, they suck in all sorts of dirt, when wheeling there can be lots of dirt.

 

[blu3fan]

I've used some heat shrink tubing where lines broke. No gap between ends.

"One day" I'll bypass that junction block. The "next day" I'll ditch the C101 connector.

I did not think of using heat shrink but that is smart thanks for the idea!

 

[89Mock]

I found a few. One was at that big junction block for all those vac lines. It was the line that went to the EGR. Another was for the evap canister. The soft line runs to a hard line on the firewall uses some kind of crimp clamp. The clamp was loose so I just pinched it more with some wire cutters.

HA! Same hose at a different spot. I was going to replace the hose entirely. I didn’t see how it was attached at the firewall. It looked like it just slipped over a tube and was held in by years of heat cycles.

 

[Saudade]

Looks something like this. Of course, instead of the nipple its the long line.

 

[89Mock]

Will do. It looks like it’s 1/4” or 5/16 hose.

Found another leak to fix. It was at the vacuum like manifold next to the air box. Probably came off when I was installing the new steering box. It made the idle really high. Noticeably different and it actually died the first time I hit the gas. The EVAP made it pass idle CO and HC PPM. Failed High Idle CO BUT it was about 1.5% lower than the first test. Third time is a charm right?
Guy didn’t check the gas tank that exploded on him last time. He said the cap worked and I told him the fix.

 

[89Mock]

Broken EVAP Canister hose.