Listers-
My 79 Spit passed Smog Check II today. FYI I inlcude the following if
it is of any use to those seeking to do same.
1. OE ZS 150CD installed. Tuned per the Haynes manual page 102.
Tricky, but essential. You should do it with the special tool
2. Fixed all vacuum leaks. Found one around the EGR plumbing.
3. Blanked off the choke with a gasket with NO open holes. Car starts
hard, but at least you KNOW no unwanted fuel is getting through the cold
start valve. BTW, I hate these auto chokes because there is NO VISUAL
method to determine if the choke is fully OFF or not. All parts are
internal. So my choke LOOKS real, but that's where it stops.
4. Made sure the air pump works well and all the plumbing and dirverter
valve function. See Eric Wilhem's article in the recent Moss magazine
regarding this. He is on the money on this point.
5. Had a custom made catalytic converter (three years on it now). I
used a catalog item once, but it quickly went away, like the OE ones.
My local muffler shop built one for me (at less price than a catalog
item) using a modern 3-way catlyist section. You will see by the
numbers below how important this is.
6. Replaced any suspect, soft, stretched, or worn vacuum lines.
7. Vacuum tested the retard diaphram on the dizzy, EGR valve, and the
one on the dirverter valve. These MUST NOT pass air.
8. Plugged (midway with a 1" x 1/4" rod) the hose that goes down the
the run-on solenoid mounted at the bottom of the radiator. This serves
only an ancillary purpose, and I wanted to eliminate any potential
malfunction from screwing up the test. Like the choke, it looks right.
9. Have the canisters connected properly. On the 79, the rear canister
has NOTHING connected at the top. Only the bottom. Check your hood
decal for details. None of the books, including Bently, were correct or
complete.
10. Set the timing to 2% ATDC per the specs.
11. Topped up the carb dashpot.
12. Went to a shop that was willing to "pre-test" and adjust prior test,
but not adjustment was necessary.
Here are the numbers:
Allowable Fleet Average Tested
Idle Test:
HC(ppm) 220 60 43
CO (%) 2.0 0.30 .01
2500 RPM:
HC(ppm) 180 52 9
CO (%) 1.7 0.50 .01
This car passed because it had all the stuff required in working order.
Careful checking of everything is necessary. (Car runs a little crappy,
though).
BTW, watch out on your pretest request. The state gets the results of
the pretest, but does not (today) blackball your car over it. The tech
told me to actually ask for a "diagnostic mode" service, not a
"pre-test".
All the best.
--
Brian N
Los Gatos, California
1979 Spitfire, 1965 Spitfire, 1963 Consul Capri
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