Hi, Aloha, and Greetings
 here's the continuing saga of my battle with CA SMOG and a few
questions.  Thanks to everyone for letting me share these events with
you and mucho thanks to the many people that have tried to help me with it.

Last Friday: Picked up van from Fred's garage, paid $85 for SMOG-ready.
John said it should pass SMOG with no-problem.  Drive to SMOG station,
immediately fails.  Drive van home.  It's running bad and then won't
start.  I inspect and find out that the throttle adjustment screw is
missing.  I have a spare one at home, pop it in, drive to Fred's, but
they're closed.

Saturday: call VolksCafe.  Peter is too maxed out with work to take a
look at diagnostics.  Bus Labs is closed.  I then call Fred's Garage.
They're open and can take a look at it on Monday.

Monday: Talk to John and Tom.  They're both pleasant and real nice
people.  Tom says that there's no way the van will pass SMOG without a
new catalytic convertor.  HC levels are between 500 and 1,000 (max is
around 200).  I wonder why they let the van out of the shop on
Friday.....   In the interest of encouraging Tom to take a better look
at the engine and find the source of the high HC levels, I talk shop a
bit.  He says that he'll also try to find the source of the problem.
Says that the catalytic convertor is just masking the problem.
Estimate for the new cat is $275 including labor.  "Yea, I could do it
cheaper," I think.  But, I don't have exhaust equipment and I'm running
out of time.

I'm still wondering about the exhaust pulse and if a valve is out of whack.

Since I have spare new cylinder head at home and a new gasket set, I can
swap the head out.  However, I have only one spare cylinder head, not
two.  I'm wondering how I can isolate the bad valves and just swap out
one side.  Or, I could potentially swap out both if I buy a new head.

Compression on the cylinders is okay and generally balanced.
1=120
2=140
3=125
4=130

Any advice?  I generally don't harbor any bad feelings about the Fred's
Garage experience.  It's a little frustrating and I wish they had taken
a better look at the van on Friday before I picked it up. However,  I'll
judge the quality of the service by what the final outcome is.  If I can
get the van to pass SMOG for reasonable cost, I'll be moderately satisfied.

-- Craig