any thoughts on insuring that my 88 carrera passes CA smog?

[bento]

i have an 88 carrera with 165K miles on the original motor. the car is consuming a quart of oil approximately every 5-600 miles or so and has been doing so consistently for the last year and change. i just got my registration notice and the smog check is due. are there any tips to making sure that the car will be as clean as possible (i.e. drive around for a while before, don't let it sit, maybe a rev cycle to run before taking it in?) The car smokes a bit on start-up and while i'm pretty sure i'll pass, i'd love to know a trick or two to increase my odds.

thanks in advance
david benett

[Joe Bob]

Yup...take it a P-car shop that has an exhaust gas analyzer. See how it performs after the car has been run good and hard. See if the shop can adjust the timing and such to comply with the State's limits.

If you can get it to pass, then take it the smog shop and get a certificate. If it does not pass, then you need to do some "other" things depending on why it did not pass.

If it is smoking even after hot, on decel or acceleration, you have other problems....like valve guides.....a bandaid approach is to run a thicker single viscosity dino oil.....

Eliminate the obvious first....good luck.

[pbs911]

take it a P-car shop that has an exhaust gas analyzer. See how it performs after the car has been run good and hard. See if the shop can adjust the timing and such to comply with the State's limits.

DO THIS! If the shop cannot adjust the CO level then go to another shop until you find one that does. Then take it to a test station that will perform a pretest. If it passes the pretest then do the test right then and there!

[jwill911]

Hi Dave,
I have an `87 Carrera with only 56K miles and I'm consuming more oil than you are (early valve guide wear). I Just passed CA smog ~ 1 month ago without any trouble. And I don't even have a cat on my car. Burning some oil should not affect HC/CO/CO2 numbers that much, as long as it it burning the fuel completely. When I compare my original smog inspection ~4 years ago (when I didn't use any oil) to the one ~ 1 month ago there are little differences in the numbers and it is still well below allowable limits. The timing is fixed (not adjustable) though the DME vintage has some affect on it, my car with build date 8/86 should according to the engine lid sticker have a timing of 3 deg. ATDC +/- 3 deg. Since my DME is a later one, after 11/86 should be same as yours same as yours the timing is 3 deg. BTDC. This was a bit of a sticking point for the SmogPros guy that did my inspection. I had to produce the Carrera spec book and take the DME out to prove it had the later one to get him to pass it. And he still didn't catch the fact I had no cat. He was happy that it had a O2 sensor.

Here's my numbers
Ignition Timing = 3 BTDC
@ 2500 RPM
HC = 27
CO (%) = 0.54
CO2 (%) = 11.5
O2 (%) = 4.6
2378 RPM
@ idle RPM
HC = 73
CO (%) = 0.36
CO2 (%) = 10.4
O2 (%) = 6.3
idle RPM = 871

John
`87 Carrera (build date 8/86)
Smog done for another two years

[Rick Lee]

Here's what I did: Drive a good 20-30 miles and do it very spiritedly. I kept my revs high, got my oil temp cooking and made sure I was first in line when the inspection station opened. Even then I kept it running while waiting and the front oil cooler fan came on. I had her good and hot. Passed VA emissions with flying colors.