EGR and Smog Legal
Wayne Cox
wmc_sr20@bellsouth.net
Sun, 8 Dec 2002 12:00:39 -0600
At 10:59 AM 12/8/2002 -0600, BodyArt27@aol.com wrote:
>I feel your pain as I also have a 91 and can't get the car to pass. I
>replaced the cat ... the EGR tube and the EGR. Still failed, but with a
>wad of receipts Texas "exempted" me for a year on best effort
I've always felt EGR was a big crock of shit, ever since removing my first
manifold and head ('73 Olds Cutlass) and seeing the amount of crap it
plasters the engine internals with. I have no doubt it makes for a cleaner
exhaust on the fresh new engines they submit for EPA testing. But what
about an 80,000 mile engine with 1/8" or more of soot caked on the valves,
ports, throttle plate, etc.?
So, I've disconnected the EGR on all my cars I care about. How much
difference does it make? When I lived in Ohio, we had a smog test with the
drive wheels on a dyno-style roller and sniffer tube up the tail pipe doing
something like a 10 - 50mph pull. I took my then 10 year old 132K mile
NX2k in for testing, and accidentally forgot to reconnect the EGR. Results:
Item Reading Units Limit
HC 20.0 PPM 141.0
CO 0.07 % 0.79
CO2 14.23 % --
I don't know how that compares to other states' tests, or other cars. But
it easily passed with no EGR and no prep other than warming it up.
-Wayne '91 NX2k - '93 NK2k - '92 SE-R parts car