Emissions and electrical issues

[Manik]

Well, thought I’d give y’all a shot to see if you could come up with any other ideas on how to lower the NoX levels. It passes the low speed ASM (dyno emissions) for all except nox. For a little background, my junk is on engine number 3, long story, but, this engine is a JDM import straight from japan. Just dropped it in, got it running like a champ, ran the old fuel out, filled ‘er up with premium and tried to get it inspected. Huge fail, twice in fact.

Pulled the Japan EGR and swapped in the American stuff. I pulled this part off of the upper intake plenum and it was caked with carbon from exhaust. It was located just above the EGR valve.

 

What is its purpose?

 

I did clean out all of the caked up carbon out of it and reinstalled it. Waiting to get back to the station for emissions check.

 

Now for the second issue. At the battery, I’m only getting 13.3 volts with the vehicle running. At the alternator I’m getting 14.4. One of the things I noticed was the fusible link coming off of the alternator wiring to the battery gets very hot. I want to replace that wiring with a fuse block, the only issue is, what amperage are the fuse links, there are 2.

 

The wiring on these things is absolutely hideous.

 

 

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[Manik]

Well, thought I’d give y’all a shot to see if you could come up with any other ideas on how to lower the NoX levels. It passes the low speed ASM (dyno emissions) for all except nox. For a little background, my junk is on engine number 3, long story, but, this engine is a JDM import straight from japan. Just dropped it in, got it running like a champ, ran the old fuel out, filled ‘er up with premium and tried to get it inspected. Huge fail, twice in fact.

Pulled the Japan EGR and swapped in the American stuff. I pulled this part off of the upper intake plenum and it was caked with carbon from exhaust. It was located just above the EGR valve.

 

What is its purpose?

 

I did clean out all of the caked up carbon out of it and reinstalled it. Waiting to get back to the station for emissions check.

 

Now for the second issue. At the battery, I’m only getting 13.3 volts with the vehicle running. At the alternator I’m getting 14.4. One of the things I noticed was the fusible link coming off of the alternator wiring to the battery gets very hot. I want to replace that wiring with a fuse block, the only issue is, what amperage are the fuse links, there are 2.

 

The wiring on these things is absolutely hideous.

 

 

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or at least on mine. lol

 

 

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[adamzan]

You've never worked on any old volkswagens then... These are miles ahead.

 

You might what to get the cat converter checked. If it's that old it may just be time to replace it.

[Manik]

You've never worked on any old volkswagens then... These are miles ahead.

 

You might what to get the cat converter checked. If it's that old it may just be time to replace it.

Nope never worked on old V-dubs. The cat I actually had replaced already, about 4 years ago and it hasn’t run until the past couple of weeks.

I actually got a check engine light come on the first time I took it for inspection. Finally was able to get the code out of the ECU and discovered this thing has an exhaust gas temp sensor which is just below the EGR valve. Installed it, as the JDM engine didn’t have one. No more CEL. Time to try the inspection process again.

 

 

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[Slartibartfast]

I'd expect it to fail on HC rather than NOx if the cat was hooped, though I've never had to deal with emissions issues on a car (no smog checks out here). Hopefully chiselling the crap out of the EGR system makes the smog machine happy. I'd check the vac lines too before you bring it back in, on the off chance you've got a leak somewhere.

 

The wiring on these is dumb in places, but it could be a whole lot worse. My family's '63 Scout has no fuse box, and just about every wire is green. The '87 F150 I've been trying to revive has some of the worst electrical connectors I've ever worked with (fiddly when new, and that was thirty years ago), second only to the fuel pump connector on my dad's '04 Audi, which is damn near tamperproof.

The fuse links on these just plug in, so unless the plug end is corroded to hell, you should be able to just swap it out. Looks like they're still available and reasonably cheap. I don't know what the amperage rating on them is, but the alt is only 70A, so that might be enough to go on. If you're going to the trouble of re-wiring, though, I'd be inclined to run a fatter charge lead (the stock one's pretty small) with a fuse to suit what the new lead is capable of in case you decide to upgrade the alt later.

[adamzan]

Good luck! I hate having to pass emissions but I get why. Pisses me off when people just remove it all and pollute more...

 

I did the JDM engine swap on 1995 but I used the US/Canada intake plenum and EGR and what not. Mine passes emissions with ease here in Ontario. And i'm rocking the 23 year old factory cat.

[Manik]

Good luck! I hate having to pass emissions but I get why. Pisses me off when people just remove it all and pollute more...

 

I did the JDM engine swap on 1995 but I used the US/Canada intake plenum and EGR and what not. Mine passes emissions with ease here in Ontario. And i'm rocking the 23 year old factory cat.

Well, great news, finally passed inspection. This one has an EGT sensor in the EGR port. I’d only ever seen EGT sensors in diesels. As soon as I installed the sensor it cleaned right up on the emissions. As for the CAT, it’s new, I had it replaced 4 years ago and not long after “My Junk” broke down and has sat until the past couple of weeks. I’m just happy to have it back on the road.

 

 

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[Manik]

I'd expect it to fail on HC rather than NOx if the cat was hooped, though I've never had to deal with emissions issues on a car (no smog checks out here). Hopefully chiselling the crap out of the EGR system makes the smog machine happy. I'd check the vac lines too before you bring it back in, on the off chance you've got a leak somewhere.

 

The wiring on these is dumb in places, but it could be a whole lot worse. My family's '63 Scout has no fuse box, and just about every wire is green. The '87 F150 I've been trying to revive has some of the worst electrical connectors I've ever worked with (fiddly when new, and that was thirty years ago), second only to the fuel pump connector on my dad's '04 Audi, which is damn near tamperproof.

 

The fuse links on these just plug in, so unless the plug end is corroded to hell, you should be able to just swap it out. Looks like they're still available and reasonably cheap. I don't know what the amperage rating on them is, but the alt is only 70A, so that might be enough to go on. If you're going to the trouble of re-wiring, though, I'd be inclined to run a fatter charge lead (the stock one's pretty small) with a fuse to suit what the new lead is capable of in case you decide to upgrade the alt later.

I was actually thinking of installing a 100a circuit breaker to replace the fuse link wiring. I did purchase an 80+amp maxi-fuse and holder that also I think would be a good candidate. Just the fact that the fusible links are getting hot tells me there’s an issue there. Any thoughts there?

 

 

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[Slartibartfast]

Yeah, a hot fuse link doesn't sound like a good thing to me either. Unless something in the truck is drawing gobs of power for no well-explained reason, the link or its connector is probably just corroded and has more resistance than it should. Amps through resistance makes heat.

 

I haven't looked into rewiring mine yet but I like the idea of something easier to replace (or simply reset) if something goes wrong. The 100A might be well-sized if you end up upgrading to the 90A Maxima alt. If you're planning to leave the stock charge wire to the alt, though, I'd check the gauge of that wire (and what it's good for) before selecting a fuse. Anything's a fuse at some amperage, and if your blade fuse is stouter than your charge lead, it's not gonna do you a whole lot of good.