what causes "hi carbon monoxide" during emissions test

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Joined
Mar 17, 2005
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Location
Dallas, TX
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mannphoto.com
I had an emissions test and I the computer said all pollutants and emissions were normal, except for CO, or carbon monoxide.

what would cause this?

my carb was rebuilt 4 years ago.
I did a complete tune up myself 8 months ago
 
I'm going through this myself. CO was high at 2500 rpm, but was 0% at idle.

Was your CO high at idle, at high rpm, or both? High CO can be an indication of running rich. If it was just high at idle, it could be the idle mixture. This is an easy fix. If it was at high RPM, your carb might need some TLC. I rebuilt mine since it needed it anyways.

Another possibility is the air injection system. This isn't too difficult to diagnose yourself if you have the emissions manual. A bad smog pump could cause CO to be high. Check all your hoses thoroughly though; I discovered that the hose going from my ABV to the air injection rail was almost completely destroyed at the check valve. My pump seems to be putting out a decent amount of air, so I suspect the busted hose was the main problem.

A bad catalyst could also cause high CO, but I'd think that other pollutants might be high also if it was bad. In my case, I'm going to ignore that possibility until I've had a retest once I get my air injection parts installed.

There are probably some other tune-up related things that you could recheck too, like valve adjustment, timing, functioning advance diaphagm, etc. I don't know how much those affect CO specifically, though.
 
he passed me anyway.

but I was thining that this could be an indication that something needed to be fixed. I am always looking at ways to extend the life , performance, and efficiceincy of my truck.

I don't know what the rpm was, I will ask him
 
Have you put in any kind of fuel additive recently? Make sure you're running unadulterated gas for a couple days before you test.
 
well, yes, I have been running RXP lately to get rid of the carbon deposits in my engine, specifically on the valves. I hear that is a problem when using the reformulated (w/MTBE) gasoline we are required to buy here in Dallas.
 
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