smog help

okay so this morning i went to go get my truck smogged here in the good ol state of california...well because im an out of state vehicle owner trying to get registered here, i had to go to a test only place. while at the test only place, they put my truck up on the dyno and tested my smog stuff....it failed misserably on all three parts. the dude, said my timing was off by like 21 degrees but how would the truck even run as good as it does with it being off THAT far. he also said that the truck was blowing raw fuel out of the tail pipe. my results were like twice over the limit, and i think the HC one was almost three times over the limit... the motor is basically stock with the exception of the cam shaft, k&n, and header. (i dont know how much bigger from stock the cam is and im told there is a formula to finding out the amount added exaust and intake by using the lobe size... anyways that a whole different story). so after i left there, i went to the repair place and they told me it was gonna be a minimum of 250 for them to even look at it, which includes them to test it twice, once before working on it, then after they make adjustments. im hoping this is just the timing effin everything up, is there any other secrets or tips to help it pass smog. im thinking a new cat. and i already run premium in it so i dont know what else i could do.

you'd better get used to doing the dyno roller test because thats how the desert is setup now. too many damn people moved up here from the I.E. and L.A. and brought the smog with them. so now we have to do that crap also.

as for tips. premium doesnt lower the emissions any but i heard and have used pure rubbing alcohol in the gas and it seemed lo help some. make sure you have like a 1/2 tank of gas and just poor a bottle in to your tank before you test it. also make sure the truck hot when you take it in. drive around for like 20 minutes before you test it. if there is a long wait to test leave your truck running until they come and get it. if the cat cools down then it will register higher numbers.

If you put a new cat on it, you're guaranteed to fail at least two tests after that, unless you go put a couple hundred highway miles on it first. The cat needs some time to break in at first, that was one reason why I failed so many times, so says my smog guy.

My truck also put out too much raw fuel, more than 3 times, almost 4 times the allowed amount. Rebuilt the carb and wired the fuel cutoff solenoid properly. The PO hacked the wiring on that part for some reason.

I passed with more motor work than you say you have. But a while back you said you had a lot more than me done, so I don't know. If you just have a cam, header and intake you should pass just fine.

Don't try any of the "Pass smog" or "Help-U-Pass" crap, it sucks. Especially on a fresh motor.

If you can find a cool enough guy at a Test Only place, have him run the truck in 3rd gear for the 25 MPH test, because that is where most Toyotas fail. They do worse at high RPMs, so running in 3rd reduces the RPM and the emissions output.

Also if you can, stick some ice (in a bag) in your intake before going into the station. It helps a good deal. You still have the stock intake right? Just with a K&N filter in it?

Also, we did all this with my truck, and still failed, but were close. We then ran it with no filter whatsoever, and ice around the edges and passed with flying colors. This was when I had a Fram filter, I switched to a K&N afterwards.

yeah he ran 15 mph in 1st then 25 in second. second wasnt so bad cause my tranny and the 4 spd rear end makes the motor turn pretty slow at that speed....first though was a little rough because as of right now its really only good to about 15-20 mph before i have to shift to second. the motor was bored to .060 over, with the cam. i wanted to really get into the motor but i was trying to get back to california and was worried about it passing so i didnt do anything extreme just incase. plus money was running tight toward the end cause of the whole moving situation. but anyways, yeah i dunno...im just gonna take it to the shop tomorrow and drop it off and see what happens.

oh and the smog guy said that the way they are doing it now here in the high desert is soon to be outdated as they are going to have to run more tests and tighter requirements so get ready.

i put a brand new cat on my mazda, and did the test literally right afterwards, like within 3 minutes, pulled it off the rack and smogged it, ran it at 4500rpm for about a minute or two to burn the crap off inside it, and i passed with flying colors, better than brand new actually.


also being "21 degrees" off is probably advanced, when i took my truck in it was at 21 degrees advance and is only suppose to be at 6 degrees. and it was running top notch.

the easiest way to be certain to pass emissions is thing, gap your plugs a decent amount (not too far because then you will blow out the spark with compression) and put like a pint of airplane fuel in your tank along with about a 1/4 of gas, this will make it run awesome, i have seen an accord (my old 1980 hatchback) blowing smoke like crazy and i did those two things and it passed and nobody knew how lol. anyway good luck. OH and in california your idle can be legally 1100rpm at idle and still pass idle test so crank that biotch up to 1100 for idle, we did on my mazda.. and heres my reults...

so 3 days and 500 bucks later, my truck passed smog and runs like ass.... i advanced my timing a little bit but it still isnt anywhere near how it used to run....my first gear feels like im starting out in second evertime. really sluggish and just no power what so ever.

i guess while it was in the shop the guys took out my 119 jet and put in a 104 to get rid of the raw fuel coming out of my exhaust and adjusted my float along with retarding my timing a few degrees. if i take it back to them to fix it, they are gonna charge me again to put back in the other jet....which at this point i dont have another 400 bucks to give them. what can be done to fix this issue? if the other jet was causing raw fuel to blow out of my exhaust.... wouldnt that mean its too big? or does it blow raw fuel because of my valve lap?

i hate my truck now....this bitch is going on restriction.

At least you can get different jets for your carb. Mine isn't adjustable. You could probably put the jet in yourself, its not that hard.

After rebuilding my carb, and my truck passing, I noticed a huge difference in power. I lost a lot. But my truck still dynoed at 101 at the wheels. I want a Weber now. I don't have to smog again for a few years.

well glad you got it passed, too bad it was that expensive and suffered in loss of power. advance youre timing a lil more, with a cam your probably not leaving the valves open long enough. just a though. and jet are simple to replace. i hope they gave you your old jet back..

i dont really know where the jet came out of....the guy made it sound like he has to pull the carb off take it all apart to put in the old one and put it all back together. i need to find someone that can tune the motor or something cause when it comes to carb adjustments, i get dumb. lol. i think you have to have your car smogged every other year... so if it cost me this much every time, it will piss me off. haha.

i advanced the timing a little bit already, not as much as it was before. prior to getting it smogged my timing was advanced as far as it would go... which i know isnt very good either. i dont want to start burning holes in pistons.

im gonna go get the old jet today, i assumed that they just traded my jet for theirs but after looking at my invoice when i got home, they charged me 17 bucks for it.