Emissions test failure

[280sl1968]

My '68 280SL has just failed its Aircare government emissions test here in British Columbia.

I can post the exact results tomorrow, but it failed on both hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. I'm expect that this means the fuel mix is a little rich.

After a failure, your have 3 months to fix and are encouraged to take it to an Approved Aircare Repair Facility for diagnostics and repair. Aircare has provided a list of approved centres with their percentage "success" rates in getting vehicles to pass on an emissions retest.

As I have had little success in finding a repair shop in the Vancouver area with experience and knowledge of working on these cars, I'm inclined to select from the list the shop that has done the highest number of repairs combined with achieving a 100% success rate on retest. However, there is no way of knowing if all they are working on is modified Civics and Skylines.

I'm reluctant to have someone start fiddling around with the fuel injection if they don't know what they're doing. Maybe I'll just have them do a spark plug change/air filter change/timing adjustment first in the hope that will be sufficient.

If anyone has a recommendation for an Aircare Approved Repair Facility in the Vancouver area that can be trusted with older cars, please let me know.


Thanks

David

[tel76]

Take it to Doctor Dan,or is his premises too far away?

[280sl1968]

It's a little far as I'm on the West Coast. Although a trans Canada trip in a Pagoda sounds like fun!

[mdsalemi]

After having my FI sytem "tuned up" (meaning adjusted properly through all the ranges) recently, AND in talking with meistermechanik Gernold Nisius at SL-Tech, I think Gernold's assessment is correct: with E10 or E15 being the standard these days, when you adjust your system for "optimal" performance (using the split linkage method) you will probably be on the richer side, and probably be WAY over the older CO and HC standards.  The gas is very different than it was in 1968, and in order to run properly the system is going to want a different mix.

Come to PUB, learn about the system, and learn to lean it out yourself.  Your car may run like crap, but it will pass the test.  Or, at least CALL Dan Caron--he is probably familiar with the tests you must pass in Canada.

FWIW old cars like this are not even a blip on the radar screen so we leave 'em alone, for the most part, in the USA.

[Benz Dr.]

Just so that everyone knows, Mike lives in Michigan where there are no E tests and there's no safety check either. It's probably the most '' old car '' friendly State in the union.

Here in Ontario, we have E testing but it's only on cars that were made from 1988 and newer. Late model cars have been pushed back to 5 or 6 years old because most of them will go into limp home mode or stop running completely if something goes wrong with engine management controls.

BC has a different game. In order to get vintage plates your car has to be 100% original or you won't get them. I've had people ask me to take pictures of my 190SL engine so they could fob it off as their own car. Of course, I refused to get involved with fraud.
Why they don't exempt older cars is beyond me but we have what's called a conditional pass here, so maybe you can get the same.

I don't, and never have advocated the idea of doing your own adjustments on a FI pump. Aside from idle speed adjustments and WRD it's best to take it to someone for a proper calibration. If your pump is that rich it might be way off or you might have a couple of injection elements that are running rich. There's a guy who restores 300SL's on the island. His name is Rudy - he should be ble to help you.

I would check CSV, WRD and your ignition first. You know, all the usual stuff. Even an oil change before the E test will give you lower readings. Keep in mind though that your engine will run at about 3.5 to 4.5 % at idle. They all run rich at idle but lean out to maybe .5% through the mid range. WOT is also very rich - you want it to be. This is because of the way the throttle valve opens which is faster through the mid range but is more linear on each end.

[mdsalemi]

Most states, like Ontario, who have E tests have wisely decided not to bother with old cars--not worth the effort.  There isn't enough of them.

What is a bit curious is who sets the standards for the states and provinces, and what on earth do these engineers-in-suits know about the running of a 40+ year old car?  Does somebody in Vancouver know enough about these cars to know how much HC or CO they should emit when they are tuned properly?  I don't think so.  A lot of arbitrary political nonsense.

We don't need safety checks in Michigan because most daily drivers are fairly new.  And as Dr. Dan points out most newer cars with engine management won't work well if they are emitting.  That's one reason we don't have the checks here--big waste of time and effort.  Just like tolls we don't have either.

[Benz Dr.]

We have one highway in Ontario that has a toll on it - the 407 running just North of Toronto. The traffic volume on the 401 is one of the highest in the world as it's the only main east/ west road in the Province so the 407 was built as a by pass around Toronto.

The 407 toll was supposed to be temporary until the highway was paid for but it was leased out to a company in Spain ( I think ) and they get the toll money. The Province gets a share but has no expenses to operate the road. All that goes to the owners. This is an ETR ( electronic toll road ) and your plate number is recorded as you drive on to and off of the highway. You can get a transponder which will save you a toll road fee which adds up quickly if you don't have one.

 I use this road a few times a year so I never bothered with a transponder. If you are from out of Province you will still  get billed.  I don't think it will be going away soon. This is the best maintain road in all of Canada.  Michigan should look at this: some of their roads are deplorable.



 

[mdsalemi]

We have one highway in Ontario that has a toll on it - the 407 running just North of Toronto. The traffic volume on the 401 is one of the highest in the world Michigan should look at this: some of their roads are deplorable.  

Some of the roads deplorable?  Most of them are beyond that.  You are way too kind.  There has to be a better way of collecting funds for road maintenance and repair than union-staffed toll collection points that provide gawdawful choke points and stop and go traffic, sometimes for miles...the tollways around Chicago for instance.  The transponders are great, most of the time, but only if you are a regular user and have one.  My two cents?  All tolls should be eliminated; fuel taxes raised to cover proper road maintenance and repair, and no pilfering of these funds for any other reasons.

Michigan is just politically inept.  We also have a truck weight limit higher than all other states.  (US Federal Limit: 80,000 pounds.  Michigan: 164,000 pounds.) Who has these heavy trucks?  The firms that haul the raw materials used to REBUILD ROADS!

We are not the only state with bad roads however...

[Benz Dr.]

I was going to point that out but I thought you might think I was picking on your State. I heard that not only do you allow very heavy trucks but you also have no or at least very low road tax on fuel.
Two leathal hits that roads never recover from.

[ctaylor738]

Uh, returning to the original question, what were the readings, and what are the standards?

[280sl1968]

The results were are follows:

DRIVING TEST:
Hydrocarbons: 354 ppm (Limit: 278 ppm)
Carbon monoxide: 1.11% (Limit: 3%)
NOx: 1248 ppm (Limit: 3702 ppm)

IDLE TEST:
Hydrocarbons: 1278 ppm (Limit: 1004 ppm)
Carbon monoxide: 9.10% (Limit: 5.15%)

[ctaylor738]

You are not far off. 

I think that an ignition tune-up like you mentioned and maybe get the injectors cleaned, plus a simple idle speed/mixture adjustment to ge the idle CO to around 3.5% would do it.

Good luck.