Smog testing and general tuning in Salt Lake, Utah

[s_firestone]

Can anyone give me the rundown about how invasive the smog testing in Salt Lake is? Do they look for mods (or just numbers), or do they care?? Is the stock emissions equipment sufficient on a GVR4? What are the gotchas(O2, Air Filter, EGR, etc)? Does leaning out work? I noticed a lot of modded cars out there on the last trip out so I really wonder how much they pay attention to it after the fact.

How drastically does the 2 point lower octane fuel affect drive-ability(coming from MS)? Does it affect emissions? Does the altitude have more effect than fuel? How much can I expect to adjust my fuel for driving (not necessarily just racing)?

Anything else I should know???

Thanks!

 

Emissions aren't bad. I've taken my car in with all kinds of mods and they didn't say anything. I always put all the smog stuff back in the car before I take it in, though (cat, egr, solenoids, basically everything on the sticker on the underside of the hood.)

The octane definately affects performance. The altitude does as well. There's no real way to say what all you'll need to adjust. For just driving, you shouldn't need to make any changes. Closed loop will make the changes necessary for proper engine performance, unless you're using some sort of EM that doesn't use the factory closed loop mode.

For WOT/open loop tuning you'll need to log some pulls and see what adjustments need to be made.

 

[jepherz]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the octane is lower in certain states BECAUSE of the higher altitude, not in addition to it. Therefore I'd reason to say that 93 octane at sea level is really the same as 91 octane up in the mountains, and no additional adjustments should have to be made since our maf takes a baro reading into account. The lower power is just a result of the air that is less dense.
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[464/2K]

I'm going to second Jeff. Sounds about right. Octane is due to altitiude.

 

[Rausch]

^ Technically this is true, as 'thinner' air resluts in less actual (not sure if that is the right way to phrase it) compression, requiring lower octane fuels. Or, something to that effect.

 

I don't know if octane is due to altitude. Don't they have 91 in California? I know they do in Phoenix.

 

[s_firestone]

Quoting UtahGalant:
Emissions aren't bad. I've taken my car in with all kinds of mods and they didn't say anything. I always put all the smog stuff back in the car before I take it in, though (cat, egr, solenoids, basically everything on the sticker on the underside of the hood.)



Cool, can I just print my own custom sticker? I still have all the emissions equipment, I just need to re-install it and redo the vacuum hoses.

I still wonder if the CAT on a car with 173,000 miles is even functional and not actually increasing emissions. Do they require replacement if its non-functional? If so I should probably buy one now.

Is it true that the inspection is every year?

 

[jepherz]

Quoting UtahGalant:
I don't know if octane is due to altitude. Don't they have 91 in California? I know they do in Phoenix.



Quoting Wikipedia:
In the Rocky Mountain (high altitude) states, 85 AKI is the minimum octane, and 91 AKI is the maximum octane available in fuel. The reason for this is that in higher-altitude areas, a typical combustion engine draws in less air per cycle due to the reduced density of the atmosphere. This directly translates to reduced absolute compression in the cylinder, therefore deterring knock. It is safe to fill up a car with a carburetor that normally takes 87 AKI fuel at sea level with 85 AKI fuel in the mountains, but at sea level the fuel may cause damage to the engine.



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^Well that settles that /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Yeah, emissions and safety are required every year for older cars. If your car doesn't pass for one reason or another you'll have to get it fixed. So, if your cat is bad, then yeah, you'd need to replace it.

 

Let me know if you have any problems passing emissions, I work at the midas in bountiful and can get parts at cost to help you out. For example a weld in converter my cost is about 40-50 dollars. Or if we need to do any fine tuning to the vehicle. Now just remember I can't do the emission test unless you are living in davis county but I can help you get it to pass

 

[s_firestone]

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou!! You know how these Galants are, Road Warrior car but they cost a mint sometimes to keep on the road, especially if its a daily driver. Mine probably emits more oil vapor than fuel at this point so the CAT is probably long gone, I know the O2 is about due as well.