Tips on passing emmisions?

[Big Tymer]

When i was buying my seafoam from nappa... the guy told me to help pass emissions... i shoulda run my tank till empty then put in the best gas, and one bottle of rubbing alcohol. and its supposed to help me pass inspection... Anyone know if this is true of it would hurt my engine???

[chas]

wel... most fuel system cleaners are methyl alchohol. i have no idea what running isopropyl (rubbing) alchohol would do to the seals in your fuel system. probably a better idea to get something off the shelf intended for your fuel system.

if carbon build up is your concern (it seems to be since you are buying seafoam) running a higher octane might help with passing the NO emissions check (the carbon buildup in the cylinders causes more compression, higher cylinder temps, and more NO). this is particularly true if they are doing a dyno check. if they just check emissions at idle, run regular octane.

other than that, make sure your plugs (and wires) have been replaced at the appropriate intervals. also, the o2 need replaced at about 70,000 (i am fuzzy on the exact mileage). sometimes an old iat will produce unusual readings and cause the computer to retard/advance the ignition when it shouldnt.

[C.O.Jones]

I don't remember where at installuniversity.com it was, but they placed paint thinner into the gas tank and wound up with 97 octane.

[hockeyman]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by C.O.Jones:
I don't remember where at installuniversity.com it was, but they placed paint thinner into the gas tank and wound up with 97 octane.<hr></blockquote>

Wow, that takes balls!

-Marc

[bu-bye]

My advice is get the engine as hot as you can before you take it in. Do a lot of city driving and get the temp as far up as you can. Adding the "best gas" which I think he means higher oct will do nothing and may even cause you to fail. Higher Oct burns slower for those engines with high compression. Our cars stock don't run high compression. See with high compression engines you don't want the gas burning until after you have reached full compression. If a high compression engine uses say 87 oct fuel it will make a pinging sound and loss of power because the fuel is burning before the piston is reaching full compression. If you put high Oct fuel in our cars it will not burn all the fuel right away or when it should and cause power loss and some of the fuel might not get burned at idle which will be sent out your exhaust pipe and the test equipment will pick it up and fail your car. You will also get low MPG. This is my view on lower and higher Oct. There are some who say that running 93oct in their V6 gives them more power but I think thats just the dollar effect. "I spent more money so it must be better." Now......if the "best gas" is Chevron, Shell, 76 or what ever then I agree that you should get the best. Their fuel is of better quality and will burn better then Achmeds-Gas-N-Go. If you have Achmeds gas in your tank use it all up and get your gas from Chevron. Good luck passing [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[ April 28, 2003: Message edited by: bu-bye ]</p>

[TheV6Bird]

I always see bottles of "Guaranteed to Pass" emissions masking bottles...I wonder if those work?

So paint thinner increases octane??? I'm sure it must have some nasty side effects in the engine.

[SilverTAWS6]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by TheV6Bird:
I always see bottles of "Guaranteed to Pass" emissions masking bottles...I wonder if those work?<hr></blockquote>

Nope. Put that in my 1987 TA which would blow emissions off the charts and it didn't help AT ALL. I didn't even expect it to get it to pass, but bring it down somewhat, but nope. You're better off just letting the engine warm up and making sure you're running 92-93 octane.

Chris