So, I spent the day at the shop replacing ball joints, front shocks and cat/muffler. Sure enough, the cat (which had one flange cut off and a non-standard muffler welded to it) was hollow inside! No wonder I failed the emissions test. Retest is tomorrow morning.

On Mar 4, 2011, at 6:18 AM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:

> The CO and NOx readings combined indicate a bad cat. CO above .5 is not lean
> at all as .5 is the ideal before the Cat.
> Over advanced ignition timing may also be a problem but you really need the
> Cat. 
> 
> Dennis 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Gregg Carlen
> Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 4:51 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Failed emission inspection
> 
> Hey folks,
> 
> Guess I'm not too suprised that something was amiss when I went for my
> emissions inspection today (Virginia). As many goofy things that the PO did
> to this van (90 Westy)....
> 
> Anyway, here's the stats:
> 
> At 15mph
> HC: 107 (limit 159), pass
> CO: 0.83 (limit 1.34), pass
> NO: 2568 (limit 1077), fail
> 
> At 25mph
> HC: 104 (limit 155), pass
> CO: 0.72 (limit 1.73), pass
> NO: 2085 (limit 984), fail
> 
> Right off the bat, I'm thinking the I'm running too lean (e.g. combustion
> too hot) and/or the cat isnt' doing its job.
> 
> My thoughts would be to a) check the timing and b) replace the cat (there's
> a non-standard muffler welded onto the cat, so it will be a new cat and
> muffler/tailpipe; which I was planning to do eventually anyway since its
> louder than a stock muffler would be).
> 
> Thoughts? Am I headed in the right direction? (Yes, the cat was hot when I
> took it in).
> 
> Gregg
> 90 Westy
>