crazykooter

Ok so I failed smog yet again but I was figuring it leaky valve stem seals. So confirm this I decided to do a compression test. Not all that great of news tbh since when I had head off to do head gasket(couldnt afford to have head rebuilt so I just did gasket) the cylinder walls looked great. No scaring what so ever. Also the truck I guess you could say only has 196k miles on it, I thought it would be good to go. Anyhow here are results---be it some consider them ok but these results are done on spec with manual. 22R normal compression is 170 while the manual states low at 142 psi.

Dry after good long warm up not drivin.
Cylinder 1=140
Cylinder 2=150
Cylinder 3=150
Cylinder 4=140

So I am below spec for 2 of the 4 cylinders manual wise. Now online researching says bare min is 128 psi. Either other I pretty much need a motor and heck I can barely afford gas lol.

I do have a line on a truck same year as mine which was rolled. Owner doesnt have history but it passed smog this year before it was rolled. It drives fine so I am told. I can buy the whole truck for a grand, which is high imo or 500 for the motor with everything on it. I would have spares of everything. I am gonna head over and check it out in the next few days and do a compression check on motor to see where it is. If its 160+ then I think it might be worth it. Of course I wont pay 500 if I dont have too.
What do yall think ?

Heres a pic of the plugs before I did compression check. Wanted to see if they were fouled. You can see the oil on them. Besides the oil they plugs look good. Like it was running right on mixture. Not to bad for doing all of it by ear and well guessing.

MaximRecoil

I don't know how the smog test works in CA, but I failed my first one with some ridiculously high numbers here in AZ ('79 4WD) — way over the limits. I did various things and passed this morning with ridiculously low numbers. I don't know which of the things did the trick; maybe it was a combination of everything. This is what I did:

• Ran "Guaranteed to Pass" through a tank of gas
• Ran 1/3 pint of Seafoam through the carburetor
• Completely disassembled and cleaned the carburetor
• Connected 12V (switched) to the electric choke (I didn't notice it was disconnected when I took the first test)
• Leaned out the mixture some on the carburetor
• Disconnected the hose from the vacuum advance on the distributor (in my case, the engine actually idles better like that; either my timing is screwy or the vacuum advance is bad).

Keep in mind that my motor has a Weber 32/36 carburetor and pretty much no original emissions equipment left on it (courtesy of a previous owner); no charcoal canister, disconnected EGR valve; essentially nothing left from the factory emissions control equipment. The only things emissions-related that it still has are a catalytic converter and a PCV valve.

With that in mind, I fully expected to fail the second time. I was shocked to see such low numbers; numbers like .16 when the limit was 1.

It makes me wonder what all that extra original emissions crap on the motor is for in the first place, when a cleaning and some fiddling accomplishes the same thing.

crazykooter

to put it mildly cali smog is near twice as hard as any other state. Heck they put ur vehicle on rollers and test it at 15 mph and 25 so if its not perfect then its gonna fail. They dont want cars over 5 years old on the roads here. Stupid ars gov at work.

MaximRecoil

They test it on rollers here too, but only at 25 miles per hour. They also test the idle. But even if the limits here were twice as strict, I still would have passed. I was way under the limits.

crazykooter

Guess I should have stated that I tried most of the tricks out there and well it failed 5 times total so I am pretty sure its not gonna pass without engine work now. Bummer 2 since I really wasnt planning on putting this truck on the road.

crazykooter

Well new news. I am gonna go pick up a runner motor tonight at 6. Not sure how well it runs but its a complete motor and even better its free. Might just yank my motor out and drop this one in and see if its worth a dang. If not then I guess im gonna be ordering a rebuid kit soon.

83

What year? Hopefully it'll work out!

crazykooter

Its out of an 83 pickup so everything is exactly the same.

Plumbrbob

do you have repair waviers in Cali? here in washington if you bring your rig to a certified emiisions shop and spend more than $150 you are entitled to a waiver. So you may not pass but get your tabs anyways cause you spent enough money to try to fix the problem.

okie81

I think it's $450 in smog repairs to qualify in CA

Plumbrbob

Harsh dude!

Kiroshu

196k already burning oil? wow someone neglected that motor bad. Didn't change the oil when supose to or ran it to the ground totally...

83

So by runner you mean it runs, then? I thought you meant you were picking up an engine out of a 4runner.

crazykooter

Ya to say the least. Lets put it this way. I have owned the truck for bout 8 years and only put maybe 3k miles on it. I bought it for off road only back then. Anyhow lets see how this new motor looks.