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Passing Inspection in MD with a 3" Turbo Back

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drxlcarfreak

10+ Year Contributor
55
0
Apr 18, 2011
Baltimore, Maryland
Hey guys, I have been reading posts and learning as much as I can, but this is actually my first post on here.

Anyways, I recently bought a 1995 Talon TSI AWD up in Pennsylvania to bring back down to Baltimore. I got a decent deal on it, but it is a bit more beat up than I had hoped, so I am fixing all of the little things that are needed to pass inspection (windshield, door handles etc.), but my biggest concern is it came with a 3" full turbo back exhaust.

I originally was going to try and fly under the radar, but that didnt work out too well. I guess my options right now are to either find a full stock exhaust, or find a high flow cat and hack up the exhaust.

I would rather not hack up the exhaust to just put a test pipe to pass the visual inspection because I still do have to pass emissions every 2 years until I can register it as a historic car. I guess my question is, is a stock exhaust from the turbo back available or will it cost way to much to be at all feasible?

I would rather just switch the exhausts out for inspection and emissions every 2 years than cut up the exhaust thats on there now.
 
Well I finally went in for my test after swapping out to my 6 bolt and having MBS install a high flow cat. I passed everything except the hydrocarbons. I was at 416 and need to be below 175. Would putting a couple of gallons of E85 drop this enough or do I have to look at fixing something else. EGR and PCV are hooked up. The only thing that I don't have hooked up is the MDP sensor because I have a 1G intake plenum. I do have really low vacuum at idle due to my cams at 900RPM. It is usually between 6-8inches. I have been looking for a vacuum leak for a long time now, but still haven't been able to find one.
 
Well I finally went in for my test after swapping out to my 6 bolt and having MBS install a high flow cat. I passed everything except the hydrocarbons. I was at 416 and need to be below 175. Would putting a couple of gallons of E85 drop this enough or do I have to look at fixing something else. EGR and PCV are hooked up. The only thing that I don't have hooked up is the MDP sensor because I have a 1G intake plenum. I do have really low vacuum at idle due to my cams at 900RPM. It is usually between 6-8inches. I have been looking for a vacuum leak for a long time now, but still haven't been able to find one.

Vacuum leaks are easiest to find by doing a boost leak test and spray soapy water on all suspected couplings, hoses, etc . . . look/listen for bubbles and hissing.

Is this a 1G you're trying to pass emissions? If everything is in good working order, go run the car HARD for 5-10 min, then immediately go to the emissions test. Running it hard will get the CAT heated up nicely to help burn off the hydrocarbons while idling for the sniffer test.
 
I did a couple BLTs when I put the engine back together. I will check it again. It ran fine, but could the low vacuum be due to a cam gear being one tooth off? It was the first timing belt I did, but I did it about 10 times and checked it the best I could. I think when I had the idle at 1100 I was pulling closer to 9-10 inches.

It is actually a 2G. I did run it decently hard to get there, but had to wait 10 minutes while idling to get a spot. I just thought, with the big cams they have a good amount of overlap at idle, would raising the idle from 900 to 1100 reduce this overlap and amount of unburnt fuel? Just a thought.
 
I think the big cams (which keeps both valves open longer at the same time) is causing most of your emissions problems. Sometimes you can get by with some adjustable cam gears. With the adjustable gears you want to take some of that overlap out. This will give you a better running car but at the same time it can kill your low end performance. Just check out some of the article in regards to adjusting your cams....
Corey..
 
Not sure about Maryland but here in Ohio all they do is a visual inspection for if you have a catalytic converter and if you car is 1995 or newer they just hook it up to a scanner and if you have no CEL's you pass. If your car is older than 1995 they put it on rollers and drive at 25mph and hook a pipe up to your exhaust to read the emissions. I've gotten away with zip-tying 2 heat shield over my straight pipe to make it look like a cat. Recently though I bought a 3" high flow cat and just bought 2 3" 2 bolt flanges and cut a section of my exhaust away to fit the cat and made my own test pipe. Not that hard to do.

Thats only in bigger citys in ohio where you guys get screwed - we have no inspection or testing of any kind down here, and you can run whatever exhaust you want and as long as its not obnoxously loud when you pass a cop and they'll never bother you
 
I think the big cams (which keeps both valves open longer at the same time) is causing most of your emissions problems. Sometimes you can get by with some adjustable cam gears. With the adjustable gears you want to take some of that overlap out. This will give you a better running car but at the same time it can kill your low end performance. Just check out some of the article in regards to adjusting your cams....
Corey..

Hmm, I guess I have to research a set of adjustable cam gears then. Any brand preference? I have read about Fidanza a decent amount on here. Hopefully it will bring my vacuum up a bit too. It is really affecting my power brakes if I pump the pedal more than twice.
 
im going to buy this and weld it in:
Catalytic Converter
Will allow me to pass the visual part of the test, beating the ob2 will be just a matter of tricking the sensors on the car. I have a GSX so they cant put me on the dyno test, there isn't AWD dynos for emissions testing in Arizona, apparently.

Oh you just have the OBDII plugin test then? From what I have read tricking the rear O2 isnt terribly hard. I actually installed a 3" magnaflow high flow cat and still failed. Which sucks because the cat took away a GOOD chunk of power AND top end. The car feels like it is struggling above 5500rpm now, before it was insanely strong up to 8k.
 
Oh you just have the OBDII plugin test then? From what I have read tricking the rear O2 isnt terribly hard. I actually installed a 3" magnaflow high flow cat and still failed. Which sucks because the cat took away a GOOD chunk of power AND top end. The car feels like it is struggling above 5500rpm now, before it was insanely strong up to 8k.
Might be a good time to invest in some new tuning hardware for your car now, you could probably even pass legit with a wideband tune, or like I mentioned, eliminating the CEL's with dsmlink. Yeah, I just refuse to get a high flow cat, my car needs to breathe.
 
Most of the people at the VEIP dont know WTF there doing. The stock cat is just behind the engine in the center of the car. Most ppl just go on one side and look like there looking at something. Id try to go and see what happens. Its like 7 bucks to have them say no come back
 
I already have ECM Link actually. I do need a tune though. Every time I feel like I get my base idle set something changes and I have to do it over again. Well, I have a 95, and in Maryland they don't believe that anything older than a 96 had OBDII so I am stuck with the sniffer test. The only CEL that I get is a missing MDP Sensor and I keep that off my dash as it is.

Haha, they wouldn't probably say anything honestly. I hate that place. I got in an argument a couple weeks ago when my Jetta failed the OBDII test. The guy wouldnt tell me what it failed on and gave me attitude that it had failed. I asked how am I supposed to fix it if I dont know which part of the test its failing?
 
Which area you at? I dont have ECM link but could help. If I can get a steal on V3 Full im gonna do it. Them douch's at the VEIP think there tough, Its such a BS job they do and they still do a shit job of it.
 
They dont even touch the ECU for OBD 1 here. They put the sniffer on and a EVAP tester on the tank and do the test that way.
 
They dont even touch the ECU for OBD 1 here. They put the sniffer on and a EVAP tester on the tank and do the test that way.

Yeah, they just walked around my car with the mirror to check for whatever it is they were looking for... The cat I guess; and then do the Evap test and test the exhaust. I passed 4 out of 5 tests, that is an 80%! Just give me the gold star!

I am up in White Marsh, but get down to Glen Burnie on occassions. I would love to have another DSMer look at it actually. It is my first DSM and car that I actually did more than just repair, so I don't know if I am doing everything right.

V3 was worth the money, even just to mess with the antilag haha. Actually it has made everything pretty easy, especially my 880 injector installation.



Yeah, I should have bought the Vagcom cable for the Jetta, but I was already a month overdue on emissions as it was. It really needs a head gasket, so I was trying to limp it along for a week or so in the hopes that it would clear the codes. I had a mechanic put a head gasket on 2 years ago, so either he did something wrong (which I am not putting past them since I have had to replace everything else that they did again myself) or there is something wrong with the engine that it is eating head gaskets.
 
if you failed hydrocarbons , that is unburned fuel. check your tune ! when i passed emissions in maryland. i had 750 cc injectors ,3 inch exhuast from turbo back , gm maft , safc. i set it up to run 14.7 a/r from idle to 2500 rpm where they ask me to hold the engine speed at during the test with a still foot , not to over rev.


i would get the head and block surfaces to make sure they are true. and never reuse factory head bolts, buy new ones or ugprade to arp studs and nuts .or something equal. dont just them in , run a tap in the block to clean up the treads and trash out. blow the holes out. dont forget to use the lube that come with the studs or engine assembly lube. make sure the studs are bottomed out inside the block.
 
That would work. Run a lill lean say 15:1 And maybe some meth. If anything some E85 in the tank. Thatll def past. Im in GB now and then. Check out the MD section in the mid Atlantic section. There are a few of us that post pretty regularly. This is my first DSM as well. And ive done some extensive mods. More still coming
 
if you failed hydrocarbons , that is unburned fuel. check your tune ! when i passed emissions in maryland. i had 750 cc injectors ,3 inch exhuast from turbo back , gm maft , safc. i set it up to run 14.7 a/r from idle to 2500 rpm where they ask me to hold the engine speed at during the test with a still foot , not to over rev.


i would get the head and block surfaces to make sure they are true. and never reuse factory head bolts, buy new ones or ugprade to arp studs and nuts .or something equal. dont just them in , run a tap in the block to clean up the treads and trash out. blow the holes out. dont forget to use the lube that come with the studs or engine assembly lube. make sure the studs are bottomed out inside the block.

The 1g bolts are not torque to yield and are reusable. Also they're almost as strong as the arp studs.
 
See if you can find stock exhaust to borrow for a day to do the test. I only had to idle at my test and IIRC my HC was at about 24 with stock exhaust. After the test put your 3" back on. Talking to Dave from Ecmlink one day, he had the same issue trying to get his to pass the sniffer with a 3" highflow cat. He had to go back to stock exhaust as well to get it to pass. Although cams probably aren't helping you much either.
 
if you failed hydrocarbons , that is unburned fuel. check your tune ! when i passed emissions in maryland. i had 750 cc injectors ,3 inch exhuast from turbo back , gm maft , safc. i set it up to run 14.7 a/r from idle to 2500 rpm where they ask me to hold the engine speed at during the test with a still foot , not to over rev.


i would get the head and block surfaces to make sure they are true. and never reuse factory head bolts, buy new ones or ugprade to arp studs and nuts .or something equal. dont just them in , run a tap in the block to clean up the treads and trash out. blow the holes out. dont forget to use the lube that come with the studs or engine assembly lube. make sure the studs are bottomed out inside the block.

Yeah, there is something up with the tune as well. It usually holds at 14.7-15, but recently it has gotten really lean (15.5-17 at times) after I recirc'd the BOV and added the catalytic converter.

The engine only has about 2500 miles on it right now. I did use ARP studs, made sure the block was true and all. I didnt do a compression check, but I dont believe that the issue is head gasket. Not burning any coolant or oil at all.

That would work. Run a lill lean say 15:1 And maybe some meth. If anything some E85 in the tank. Thatll def past. Im in GB now and then. Check out the MD section in the mid Atlantic section. There are a few of us that post pretty regularly. This is my first DSM as well. And ive done some extensive mods. More still coming

I will check it out man. Thanks for the heads up. I think the closest E85 station is down your way too.

See if you can find stock exhaust to borrow for a day to do the test. I only had to idle at my test and IIRC my HC was at about 24 with stock exhaust. After the test put your 3" back on. Talking to Dave from Ecmlink one day, he had the same issue trying to get his to pass the sniffer with a 3" highflow cat. He had to go back to stock exhaust as well to get it to pass. Although cams probably aren't helping you much either.

That is a great idea! Anyone have a stock exhaust sitting around or would let me borrow one for a day???
 
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