Another day, another headache... Help me pass Emissions in Arizona (1 Viewer)

[PhoenixFZJ80]

Hello Mud,


Here for my 4th time this week as I try to get my trusty Turd back on the road.

Rewired my chewed up 02 Sensor over the weekend, fire up the truck- CEL turns off. Victory!

Fast forward to today, fire it up and drive it 12 miles to the emissions testing place- Passes everything but fails for: HC and CO.

A little recent history:
-Two new aftermarket magnaflow cats January 12th 2017, Full tune up around the same time.
- The truck has pretty much sat in my driveway for close to a year. Ive MAYBE put 400 miles on it since April 2017.
- Truck sat with an empty gas tank, im talking light on, less than a quarter tank.
- Fire the truck up after fixing O2, drive it to the shell and put in 5 gallons of regular grade gas, drive it home and park it.
-Disconnected battery while working on 02 wiring
-Today fire it up drive 12 miles to emissions on less than a quarter tank, fail HC and CO
-probably overdue for an oil change

So Here is my readings from AZ today as well as Colorado in January 2017 Im hoping someone can advise me to run a tank of gas through it, change the oil, drive it 100 miles and be in good shape to go back and pass...

 

[Tools R Us]

With about 5gal of gas, dump in ~1/2gal of denatured alcohol, drive it a bit to mix, make sure it's fully warm and retest.

 

[danthman114]

move to Yuma and not worry about it...

 

[OffRoadScott]

With about 5gal of gas, dump in ~1/2gal of denatured alcohol, drive it a bit to mix, make sure it's thoroughly warm and retest.

Do as @Tools R Us says. The most important part is making sure it is nice and warm. Do not just start up and drive to the emissions test facility. When I went and got mine tested I took it on the freeway, surface streets for at least 30 minutes prior and when I was in line I did not turn the LC off either.

 

[BILT4ME]

Also, you just cleared all your codes by disconnecting the battery. Give it frequent on-off cycles and drive it to let it set it's operating codes and base line.

The computer must learn it's setup before you go in an test or it will run rich usually.

Like they said.....pour in alcohol and drive it a solid 30 minutes.

 

[PhoenixFZJ80]

Also, you just cleared all your codes by disconnecting the battery. Give it frequent on-off cycles and drive it to let it set it's operating codes and base line.

The computer must learn it's setup before you go in an test or it will run rich usually.

Like they said.....pour in alcohol and drive it a solid 30 minutes.

Do as @Tools R Us says. The most important part is making sure it is nice and warm. Do not just start up and drive to the emissions test facility. When I went and got mine tested I took it on the freeway, surface streets for at least 30 minutes prior and when I was in line I did not turn the LC off either.

With about 5gal of gas, dump in ~1/2gal of denatured alcohol, drive it a bit to mix, make sure it's fully warm and retest.

I suppose this is the route I will take, im fairly confident now that ive thought about it that it should pass once its been driven a bunch after pulling the battery, but I guess I don't want to risk it failing again. Will I run into any issues after running denatured alcohol through it? Thanks all for the advice, except for the Yuma recommendation, imma pass on that. haha.

 

[DSRTRDR]

make sure to buy the denatured alcohol at the hardware store, not in the supermarket - BTDT

in many years of experience with emissions testing of my 40 in Scottsdale, I have determined that ~50 miles driving (for me that is to the McDowell Mountain Park entrance and back) prior to testing is required for passing emissions - granted, the 2F engine is closely related to a tractor, but the 80 series motor is even bigger

 

[samiam09]

the 3 f is that same tractor motor with fuel injection

 

[BILT4ME]

the 3 f is that same tractor motor with fuel injection

A 93 has a 1FZ-FE.

 

[Nostradamus]

I lived in Scottsdale for a few years and it was always a nightmare to get my FJ60 to pass. Had to throw in a new smog pump (under warranty from o'reilly's) every time, add alcohol, run it hot, etc. I finally got tired of it and registered the car in Montana. No smog, no taxes, and of your vehicle is older than 11 years, you can get a permanent sticker. All fixed now

 

[Tools R Us]

... Will I run into any issues after running denatured alcohol through it? ...

You drew the short straw to have to test in the summer, with winter gas would likely pass. This is just making winter gas (10% alcohol or a bit more) with available stuff. If there were to be any running problems, couldn't run it all winter, that is what comes out of the pump. Alcohol burns clean, you want ethanol or methanol, commonly called denatured at the hardware store.

 

[ppc]

You stated "light on", "less than a quarter tank". That means you have a minimum of 5 gallons of stale gas before adding the 5 fresh additional gallons. Take the other recommendations above but I would suggest that you also burn, drain etc. most of what is currently in the tank. Add 5 more gallons plus the alcohol, run the 50 miles hard on the freeway before retesting.

Edit... Make sure to check the ignition base timing is set to 3 degrees before testing.

 

[ChaseTruck]

-Disconnected battery while working on 02 wiring
-Today fire it up drive 12 miles to emissions on less than a quarter tank, fail HC and CO

Our '93 gets really prissy when the battery is disconnected for any length of time. On one of those occasions, after firing it up, it decided that idle at 200rpm ought to suffice. It was actually funny, hearing that thing run - actually quite smoothly - at just 200rpm...
It usually takes a few drive cycles reaching full operating temps to get back to normal.

With what you describe, I wouldn't be surprised that it's running rich at idle.

 

[Rifleman]

If you still fail your next emission test after you've tried running the denatured alcohol treatment, then here are a few other items you might want to check.

High HC can be caused by timing not being set to factory specs*, defective ignition components (Dist. cap, spark plugs, plug wires, weak coil) or a lean air/fuel mixture that can cause a lean misfire, check for possible vacuum leaks.

As to your CO fail, that could be caused by a bad O2 sensor, dirty air filter, out of adjustment, or defective TPS, bad AFM, or a plugged PCV valve.

* Since you only failed the HC part of your test by 7 PPM, making sure that your timing is set to factory specs would be the first thing I'd be looking at to maybe fix your HC failure.

 

[NorCalFJ100]

Just be glad you aren't in California! I wish our tests were only $16 - AHah...Now I've also heard good things about the denatured alcohol that was mentioned by @Tools R Us

 

[RayRay27]

Timing, timing, timing. I just went through a similar situation with my 94 here in Colorado. I ended up replacing both O2's and my fuel pressure regulator. Did a full tune up, oil change, ran BG 44k through it and in the end my timing was off. Like a moron the first thing I should have checked. Would of saved me a lot of time and money probably. It was jumping between 3 and 10 degrees. Once I dialed it in, drove to the station and all of my number dropped significantly. Not sure how the test are run in zona but here in the Denver metro they put your truck on dyno rollers. Sucks donkey balls! Good luck.

 

[Cruzerman]

I had the same problem in California with my 40. My solution was to move to Oregon.

 

[inkpot]

Hey Ray! Arizona is Plug n Play for 96 and 97 year models every 2 years. Easy Pease! No dynos for all wheel drive on the earlier rigs, so they get visual check under hood and under rig along with sniffer testing at various rpms in park, every year.

 

[RayRay27]

Uh Lucky! Here in Denver you have to do 240 seconds (4 minutes for the mathematically challenged) on a dyno to quote/un-quote simulate real world driving situations and most all stations will not test a vehicle with tires over 33" so then you have to swap out your tires to test too.

 

[inkpot]

Uh Lucky! Here in Denver you have to do 240 seconds (4 minutes for the mathematically challenged) on a dyno to quote/un-quote simulate real world driving situations and most all stations will not test a vehicle with tires over 33" so then you have to swap out your tires to test too.

Never had a problem with tire size on my part time 4x4 cruisers. The tech would drivem onto the dump and rollem right up to speed, just like a Camry.