NLXTACY
Wits' End
So it was finally that time to register the truck officially and get the smog done. This has been a major worry for me since the day I bought this bucket of bolts. A trip to AAA helped me get pretty far along with getting the registration done and now all I needed was a passing smog certificate and I am good to go.
I went to the same smog guy I have been going to for years. Mainly because he speaks lousy English and he doesn't spend his whole time talking about how good we have it here compared to his home country of Cambodia.
The truck was driven onto the dyno wheels and then he wanted me to make sure that it was for sure in 2WD. He was paranoid about it. He said "how you sure?". Well...the hubs are free and see this front driveshaft? I can spin it. I still don't think he trusted it.
He started it up, it ran fine. Now after 3 minutes I realized something. I'm gonna fail this test. I was starting to feel light headed. The exhaust was pumping out raw gas. Heck I could have put a bucket under the tailpipe to reuse some of that exhaust. The next shop over came over and complained about it. Mr. Cambodia turned on a huge fan to blow out the exhaust. The old black guy waiting in line after me got up and said, "I'd smoke a cigarette but I'm afraid the building will blow, I'm going for a walk." .
The Mr. Cambodia pops open the hood and puts on his little testers and 30 seconds later he says, "you fail inspection". Inspection?!?! I figured I would fail from the liquid fuel spilling out of the exhaust pipe. He brought me over and showed me.
Here is the deal here in CA. EVERY VACUUM PORT MUST HAVE A HOSE CONNECTED TO IT. Where did I fail? Now on my particular truck it came with dealer installed air and not factory air. Georg spent his time and my money on trying to get everything needed to get it back to factory air. Then I went to my mechanic and converted it to R134a. Well the A/C worked and worked great. BUT...there were still some missing parts that I have been learning that I have.
There is an idle up solenoid on the driver's side fender. One hose goes to the dashpot on the top front of the carb. The other hose goes to the A/C vacuum supply hose coming off the brake booster's finned nipple coming off the intake manifold. All A/C equipped trucks that a small vacuum port off the side of that finned nipple. Mine did not. So a quick trip to SOR and I got the nipple and the solenoid. Now when those are in the truck and working its suppose to kick up the idle when the compressor clutch is engaged. Instead my truck drops idle when I turn on the A/C.
So I failed because I was missing the hose going to the dashpot on the carb. Which only is used for the A/C. So what did I do? What anyone here would do. I told him that my A/C doesn't work and that I took that stuff apart and will be removing the A/C. He said it doesn't matter. If that dashpot is there and there is no hose, it means there is potentially a vacuum leak somewhere. FAIL!
So I said fine. I'll accept it. So I asked him to please proceed and see whatever else he finds. He took off the gas cap and tested it. Tested fine. He put some gizmo onto the fuel filler and filled it with an inert gas, presumedly to put it under pressure. This was to test the evap system and carbon canister. That all checked out. He then did the 15mph test and the 25mph test. So far so good. He then crawled all over it and continued with the physical inspection.
The results? I failed physical inspection AND I failed on HC.
So now if you look at the results, I was high on HC. I was 150PPM (parts per million) and the limit is 129PPM. Average is 43PPM. So what does that mean? Running really rich. As far as SPIKE STRIP and I can tell, after adjusting everything we can, we are pretty sure that this can be attributed to the intake leak I have and why I have consistent 10" vacuum. There is no amount of carb tweaking that I can do to get it to not run rich AND not have the truck running like absolute crap.
The C0% max was .84% where I came in at 0.16% and average being 0.14%. Woohoo.
The NO(PPM) came in at 196PPM where max is 1076PPM and average was 414PPM. Woohoo x2
Now for visual inspection I see where I failed for the hose but I notice for "Ignition Timing" it says "Mech Prob". He never mentioned an issue with the timing and I am not sure if "Mech Prob" is a bad thing or just a neutral thing. Any thoughts?
So now. With this information I went back to AAA to hand them my failure. The girl told me that I would either have one day to bring it to compliance OR I would have to pay $50 in order to have 60 days to do so. So $50 later I now have a red square with a large "4" in the middle of it that now graces the top right corner of my rear hatch window.
Now in doing some research after talking to SPIKE I learned about something that CA has to offer. Its called the SMOG CHECK CONSUMER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM or CAP. Now there are two ways to qualify. Being as between my wife and I we make slightly more than the $39k annual household income required to be eligible under Income Eligibility, I opted for #2.
Here is what it says:
"TEST-ONLY ELIGIBLE
Your registration renewal notice indicates that your vehicle is required to have its Smog Check Inspection at a Test-Only or Gold Shield station. If you qualify, you must pay the first $100 toward diagnosis and repair of your vehicle. the State will then contribute up to $500 in emissions-related diagnostic and repair services to your vehicle at a CAP-approved station."
So how can I do this by doing the work myself and NOT going through some CAP station?
I have til April 2nd to take care of it before I have to pay another $50.
The AAA girl was very helpful in getting all of this info into my hands. As I was getting my paperwork all put into a nice neat pile and getting the paper clip back on, the AAA girl then turns to me and says, "oh and btw, when you put in the request for the state re-imbursement, they are going to be sending you an IOU because of the state budget, sorry!"
Great.
I went to the same smog guy I have been going to for years. Mainly because he speaks lousy English and he doesn't spend his whole time talking about how good we have it here compared to his home country of Cambodia.
The truck was driven onto the dyno wheels and then he wanted me to make sure that it was for sure in 2WD. He was paranoid about it. He said "how you sure?". Well...the hubs are free and see this front driveshaft? I can spin it. I still don't think he trusted it.
He started it up, it ran fine. Now after 3 minutes I realized something. I'm gonna fail this test. I was starting to feel light headed. The exhaust was pumping out raw gas. Heck I could have put a bucket under the tailpipe to reuse some of that exhaust. The next shop over came over and complained about it. Mr. Cambodia turned on a huge fan to blow out the exhaust. The old black guy waiting in line after me got up and said, "I'd smoke a cigarette but I'm afraid the building will blow, I'm going for a walk." .
The Mr. Cambodia pops open the hood and puts on his little testers and 30 seconds later he says, "you fail inspection". Inspection?!?! I figured I would fail from the liquid fuel spilling out of the exhaust pipe. He brought me over and showed me.
Here is the deal here in CA. EVERY VACUUM PORT MUST HAVE A HOSE CONNECTED TO IT. Where did I fail? Now on my particular truck it came with dealer installed air and not factory air. Georg spent his time and my money on trying to get everything needed to get it back to factory air. Then I went to my mechanic and converted it to R134a. Well the A/C worked and worked great. BUT...there were still some missing parts that I have been learning that I have.
There is an idle up solenoid on the driver's side fender. One hose goes to the dashpot on the top front of the carb. The other hose goes to the A/C vacuum supply hose coming off the brake booster's finned nipple coming off the intake manifold. All A/C equipped trucks that a small vacuum port off the side of that finned nipple. Mine did not. So a quick trip to SOR and I got the nipple and the solenoid. Now when those are in the truck and working its suppose to kick up the idle when the compressor clutch is engaged. Instead my truck drops idle when I turn on the A/C.
So I failed because I was missing the hose going to the dashpot on the carb. Which only is used for the A/C. So what did I do? What anyone here would do. I told him that my A/C doesn't work and that I took that stuff apart and will be removing the A/C. He said it doesn't matter. If that dashpot is there and there is no hose, it means there is potentially a vacuum leak somewhere. FAIL!
So I said fine. I'll accept it. So I asked him to please proceed and see whatever else he finds. He took off the gas cap and tested it. Tested fine. He put some gizmo onto the fuel filler and filled it with an inert gas, presumedly to put it under pressure. This was to test the evap system and carbon canister. That all checked out. He then did the 15mph test and the 25mph test. So far so good. He then crawled all over it and continued with the physical inspection.
The results? I failed physical inspection AND I failed on HC.
So now if you look at the results, I was high on HC. I was 150PPM (parts per million) and the limit is 129PPM. Average is 43PPM. So what does that mean? Running really rich. As far as SPIKE STRIP and I can tell, after adjusting everything we can, we are pretty sure that this can be attributed to the intake leak I have and why I have consistent 10" vacuum. There is no amount of carb tweaking that I can do to get it to not run rich AND not have the truck running like absolute crap.
The C0% max was .84% where I came in at 0.16% and average being 0.14%. Woohoo.
The NO(PPM) came in at 196PPM where max is 1076PPM and average was 414PPM. Woohoo x2
Now for visual inspection I see where I failed for the hose but I notice for "Ignition Timing" it says "Mech Prob". He never mentioned an issue with the timing and I am not sure if "Mech Prob" is a bad thing or just a neutral thing. Any thoughts?
So now. With this information I went back to AAA to hand them my failure. The girl told me that I would either have one day to bring it to compliance OR I would have to pay $50 in order to have 60 days to do so. So $50 later I now have a red square with a large "4" in the middle of it that now graces the top right corner of my rear hatch window.
Now in doing some research after talking to SPIKE I learned about something that CA has to offer. Its called the SMOG CHECK CONSUMER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM or CAP. Now there are two ways to qualify. Being as between my wife and I we make slightly more than the $39k annual household income required to be eligible under Income Eligibility, I opted for #2.
Here is what it says:
"TEST-ONLY ELIGIBLE
Your registration renewal notice indicates that your vehicle is required to have its Smog Check Inspection at a Test-Only or Gold Shield station. If you qualify, you must pay the first $100 toward diagnosis and repair of your vehicle. the State will then contribute up to $500 in emissions-related diagnostic and repair services to your vehicle at a CAP-approved station."
So how can I do this by doing the work myself and NOT going through some CAP station?
I have til April 2nd to take care of it before I have to pay another $50.
The AAA girl was very helpful in getting all of this info into my hands. As I was getting my paperwork all put into a nice neat pile and getting the paper clip back on, the AAA girl then turns to me and says, "oh and btw, when you put in the request for the state re-imbursement, they are going to be sending you an IOU because of the state budget, sorry!"
Great.
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