Smog county hell/tuning cams for pass

Rubrignitz · 10-01-2009, 07:23 PM

I've had the FRPP hot rod cams for 2 years now and finally had to attempt emissions test in my county (travis/austin, tx). I've failed three times already. My tuner keeps making tweaks but they keep failing me. There are no tuners that I know of here in Austin that can help me, only SA and Dallas/FW. SA is a non-smog county so they're unsure of just what it takes to tweak me to smog-legal. Alternately I could drive the 3.5 hours up to DFW and pay a large sum to get re-dyno'd, then cross my fingers but they guarantee to help me pass and I can drive down the street in that county to get stickered. It will be expensive.
The other option is to extricate these cams, put the stock cams back in, pass emissions and get on with it.

Any rec's for driveable tunes with these cams that can pass an emissions test? From what I'm gathering, it's difficult to walk the line of 02 ready state w/o taking it back and forth from the dyno to the inspection station until you pass.

I'm showing an evap not ready and both o2 sens and o2 sens htr not ready. The evap is fine, I can fail one but the o2's have to show ready. Zero codes or cels. everything else is gold.

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hammeron · 10-01-2009, 08:36 PM

man i feel for ya Rubrignitz and i hope you can
pass eventually.

i've been meaning to take mine over for testing since
the tests are free, to see where i stand. i have
stock exhaust so i'm not too worried. if i fail, i'll put
the stock cams in.

this is why i kept the tools, they are ready
to go if needed....

SirKnightTG · 10-01-2009, 09:06 PM

I don't think the issue is with the cams. It's the rear o2's being turned off which is always done with tunes. But since you have high flow cats they should be able to be turned on.

Perhaps you need the 02 sensor raiser non foulers that Brenspeed sells.

Rubrignitz · 10-01-2009, 09:30 PM

One way or the other, this car will be street legal in the next week. I know it's not the longtubes because others get passed with them. It's a tune thing. If he won't retune me again for free I'll go up to the guy in Dallas and have them retune me until it passes.

I should have initially had this car tuned in an emissions county here in TX. Then I could go back and plead my case. My tuner in a non-emissions county just plays dumb.

SirKnightTG · 10-01-2009, 09:53 PM

I'm actually surprised SA doesn't have emissions. But I checked on the DPS site and sure enough, they're safety inspection only. I don't know why a place with a high population density does not do emissions. Very odd.

I know tons of people in Houston get passed all the time w/ headers, cams, blowers, etc and the Houston area is about as strict as California. I think Dallas is the same way.

It's totally possible to get your setup passed, it's just a tune issue. If you recall, I asked JPC about emissions with cams (like hot rods) and they said it's no problem (and they're in MD which has emissions testing). The problem here is Murillo.

There are also tons of people with cams in the Dallas area (they've posted here a bunch and have youtube vids) so I think it's safe to say you'll get it done.

JDM is opening a shop in Houston soon (daddy Jim has a house in the Houston area now). I'll be glad b/c I want a dyno tune from them. Plus they'll be able to make a good emissions tune just in case even though I don't need it right now and hope I don't any time soon.

tx_zstang · 10-02-2009, 02:22 AM

Rubrignitz, It's not your cams or headers. Having to walk the same inspection criteria, and failing myself once with similar results, inspections can be done, but it does take a proper tune to do it. You have to have the rear O2 sensors turned on (unless there is a way in the tune to make them "not available" at all). With the O2 sensors turned off, you'll get at least 2 or 3 "not ready" indications, as you've seen. And we can only have 1 "Not ready" and still pass.

The Evap one is easy to get rid of. The O2 ones are not. If you have rear cats, just get the rear sensors turned on. After loading your new tune, drive it a couple of days to get the proper driving cycles in. People say you have to go 50-150 miles, bull****. You can get the entire system 'ready' by driving it one day (at least 5 minutes at speeds 35-65), and then go to the inspection station the next day after driving that far as well.

PM me if you want my number and we can talk about it more.

Rubrignitz · 10-02-2009, 10:42 AM

Thanks tx_zstang, just pm'd you. And thanks sirknight and hammer for your inputs as well. Driving illegal like this is killing me. I must get my car stickered and legal next week. I don't like having to depend on Murillo, who swore that all emissions were turned on when I left his shop wednesday. I drove an hour and a half there and back taking a half day off work and it was real depressing when I failed for the second time. Now he wants me to mail him my tuner and the results from the inspection. Seems like a lot of hit and miss to me... I don't know. I just need this thing legal quickly. I work downtown austin and the police station is right here. It's crawling with police and one stopped me yesterday morning, then released me with a warning after I told him my plight

. He was pretty cool but the next one is probably going to light me up.

Too bad I don't live in your area hammer. You must be able to do the cam swap in a few hours with all that experience from swapping yours in/out.

SirKnightTG · 10-02-2009, 02:00 PM

tx_zstang, where did you get your tune?

Rubrignitz · 10-02-2009, 02:15 PM

I'd like to know too. Now they're telling me that Diablosport has some quirk in their software and that's why it's failing even with the O2's enabled. If I don't get some information by Monday I've got an appointment lined up to remove these cams. I'm kicking myself for taking it down to SA to get tuned in the first place. If I would have taken it up to DFW I would be set. Dallas Mustang uses SCT software and guarantee they can get me passed.

So...I can either take these cams out, sell them for what it cost me in labor to have them swapped and stop the bleeding from tuning costs.

Or...take it up to Dallas Mustang, pay $375 for an SCT handheld and $380 for a dyno tune retaining my FRPP cams.

I could have had a mail-order tunable supercharger on this car by now...

hammeron · 10-02-2009, 02:20 PM

lol! nice!

yes indeed... I've done 3 cam swaps on my car
so far....I really love my hot rods right now, the
only thing i have to endure is the cold bloodedness
of the cams in cold weather. if i can make it
through this winter, i see no need to ever remove
them again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rubrignitz

Too bad I don't live in your area hammer. You must be able to do the cam swap in a few hours with all that experience from swapping yours in/out.