The car has 117,000 and nothing is aftermarket in the motor or the turbo. The only modifications include boost controller, 3" turbo back exhaust (fairly new catalytic) fmic an ebay intake and a apexi safc2. When they smoged me a few days ago I had the Safc zeroed out and I barley failed here are the numbers from the test.

.........................................Hc(ppm)...................C0(%)....................NO(PPM)
Test.......co2....o2........max.measured..........max..measured........max measured

15mph...11.1...4.9.........87.....88...................0.51.....0.54............701......706........FAIL
25mph...14.6...0.2.........52.....52...................0.49.....0.30............730......241........PASS


I drove the car a lot that day but the car was turned off for about twenty minutes before it got tested. I am changing the spark plugs and I was told to clean the egr valve so I am going to do that. But my real question, would it be a good idea if I lean the bottom end out just a little bit on the safc? and if so roughly how much from zero?

Since I have no idea how the smog rules work, I wont comment on that. But, assuming you're failing the smog based on your intake/exhaust mods and not your afr's based on your safc tuning. Did you have the car smogged before the mods were installed?

If your o2 sensor is working correctly, you are in closed loop mode -- so you don't actually lean it out, you would just be changing your fuel trims.

Clean your engine out with seafoam (or just water) through a vacuum line when the engine is fully warmed up -- hold the RPMs to about 2000-2500. Change your oil before the test and keep the level below the full line (have it about down to the add line).

My car kept failing on a stock setup. I finally wired the WG wide open so no boost would happen and it passed with no problems. Do they put a load on the car at those speeds?

if you have a High Flow Cat your not going to pass. When i had a HFC i need to swap to OEM cat to pass smog.

Well the smog shop tested it at 15 mph at 2723 RPM for the low test and 2683 RPM at 25mph. Im not sure what gear they used. Yea Im going to change the plugs, wires, and now the oil. Leave it almost at the add line is a new tip to me but I will definetly try it. I am not 100% sure if its a high flow cat or not but I'm pretty sure it is not because I didnt pay anything extra for it. I am going back to try it wednesday so i will keep you guys posted. But even still adjusting the fuel curve with the safc wouldnt help it run a little leaner? The smog technician said it was running a little rich on the low speed test.

2geclipse565 said:

Well the smog shop tested it at 15 mph at 2723 RPM for the low test and 2683 RPM at 25mph. Im not sure what gear they used. Yea Im going to change the plugs, wires, and now the oil. Leave it almost at the add line is a new tip to me but I will definetly try it. I am not 100% sure if its a high flow cat or not but I'm pretty sure it is not because I didnt pay anything extra for it. I am going back to try it wednesday so i will keep you guys posted. But even still adjusting the fuel curve with the safc wouldnt help it run a little leaner? The smog technician said it was running a little rich on the low speed test.

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It should stay closed loop unless they put quite a bit of load on the engine. If it made it into open loop mode, it would probably help to lean it a little. The stock maps are extremely rich.

Do you have a logger? You should make sure your o2 sensor is in good shape, it should start cycling up and down (closed loop) fairly soon after you start it.

DSMSpyder99 said:

if you have a High Flow Cat your not going to pass. When i had a HFC i need to swap to OEM cat to pass smog.

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Maybe Cali is tougher then Connecticut. My bro sold his 1g which had no emissions equipment but a cat co high flow cat and he passed emissions. Just barely but he made it.

I'm going to be helping my friend try and get through emissions with his galant. Its basically back to stock but still not passing.

Yup, freaking CommiFornia... We have the worse emission testing here.

I would go get a pretest done on your car, and see if they will let you play with your safc while they are checking it.

The load in 1st gear and 2nd gear is different, so lean it out to burn that excess you have at 2700 rpms, and let those guys pretest it for you.

Pretest so they will stick the sniffer up your pipe while you play with it

You mean you didn't tune up your car before a smog check? You should at least change plugs, check sparkplug wire resistance, and change your oil.

hrm... it failed nearly everything, I would say it was might be your cat, you might need to go back to your OEM one like mentioned earlier. Maybe run a silencer also to increase backpressure.

Did you by anychance disconnect your battery anytime within a week or something?

The SAFC might help a little but it should pass without it. If its too rich it could be the O2 sensor or you need to clean something. But according to you test results everything is high which doesn't help with diagnosis. It could be something ignition related.

if you are failing with barely those mods, something is definitely wrong. a lot of us bay area guys have passed with 190-255 fuel pumpes, 660-1000cc injectors (dsmlink of course), huge turbos and fmics, with piping and everything else basically.

but also some of us have failed with barely any mods.

i too have failed before with stock fuel system. it was my o2 sensor. log that make sure its cycling.

Well I tried changing my oil plugs and did the seafoam (seafoam was awesome by the way I did it on all my buddys cars to) and still didnt pass. finally I had to break down and but a new cat. I bought a 3"universal cat off ebay for $40 and had my buddy weld it on. The next day I passed with flying colors.


And I did this with the SAFC zeroed out completly. So to answer my original question the SAFC did not help me pass smog.

Is your car runing any better now after the seafoam ?