NJ emissions - passed

[dw1]

My '87 (currently w. stock exhaust & cat, 65K miles)

Before:
NOx 862 (max allowed 1378)
HC 140 (max allowed 180)
CO% 2.86 (max allowed 1.01) - FAILED
CO2% 10.9
O2% 1.4

After:
NOx 999
HC 64
CO% 0.71 - PASSED
CO2% 14.5
O2% 0.4

The difference:
1) new spark plugs - although the old ones looked clean, just light grey deposits
2) distributer cap & rotor - again, the old ones didn't look at all bad
3) the car may have been a bit hotter the first time, from waiting in line at the inspection station.

and what appears to be the major change:

4) disconnecting the altitude sensor and shorting the cable connector pins.

I thought this only made a minor difference in leaning the mixture, but it appears to be a major effect on CO without any other adjustments.

I know I could have gone to a "friendly" shop & gotten the paperwork for acceptance or a waiver, but I didn't want to let the bureaucrats win. I also could have performed the underhood adjustment as I have an appropriate long allen key & a CO meter, but I wanted to find out if "faking out" the altitude sensor & some basic tune-up stuff would work.

BTW, I'm working on getting this car registered as a "collector car" in NJ, so I don't have to worry about this in the future. FYI, this would limit me to 3K miles/year.

NJ still failed the car for the very light tinting I have on the side windows.

[trconway]

Yes and the insurance is very, very inexpensive.

[RickM]

Thanks for the info.

A hot engine is usually preferred when going in for emission testing.

[equality72521]

Kentucky emissions pas... oh, wait,.. Kentucky doesn't have emissions testing