'82 280zx na egr problems.

[eec564]

Removing EGR won't net you more power, and may actually hurt mileage. The valve is only open at part-throttle cruise and is there to introduce inert gas to reduce combustion temperatures and the formation of oxides of nitrogen. While a nice header would help, there's no reason to use a non-egr N/A manifold over the stock one, and since battle's is working, and especially since he needs to pass smog, leaving it in place is the best option. A good check over the EFI system and a leak-down test goes a long way to determining why anything isn't passing smog.

[RUZN]

Cant you Run Methylhydrate or something cause its 99.9% alcohol, and you'll pass? I know I ran my 240sx on 4L Methylhydrate and 20L Gas and pass smog in Vancouver B.C. Canada

Oh and wouldnt replacing your muffler and possibly your whole exhaust pipe make you have a cleaner burn cause you wouldnt have all that old crap in the muffler shooting out

[eec564]

Running cars on alcohol when they weren't designed for it is a general no-no. Alcohol eats away natural rubbers. The seals in the fuel system of a 25+ year old car don't need any abuse done to them. It has been done before, and is a bandaid fix that won't cover up serious engine problems. Around here E85 is the alcohol source of choice, a lot cheaper than methanol from a hardware store. It will also throw your AFRs way off unless your fuel system is really good at compensating in closed-loop mode. The old bosch l-jetronic system may not have that much authority for ego correction.

 

A new exhaust wouldn't help any unless there was something wrong with the exhaust to begin with, such as a clog. Catalytic converters have been known to get clogged, but mostly they just quit working. Also, the cleanness of the burn happens in the engine, well before the exhaust. A clogged exhaust will cause lots of backpressure and loss of power, but under the conditions a smog test is preformed could very well do little.

[akumazedex]

Yeah, I'm a little hesitant about removing the smog equiptment that I really need, haha, not to mention the smog guys here in the bay area are really picky about what they will pass, the first time I smoged the z, the guy refused to pass it because I had the msa intake on it.. Go figure, I replaced the giant air cleaner with something lighter and nicer and now my car won't pass smog. I don't know how tight the smog laws are elsewhere but around here they'll fail you for having the wrong muffler on if they could. From what I noticed it's mostly the 70's cars in general that would run better without an egr, as they weren't designed for them and would cause more problems than they solved. The 80's shouldn't have a problem with them, when I was running mine with the egr disconnected and now that I fixed it, I diddnt notice any diffirence. In my opinion I think that removing most smog components on 80's+ cars is pretty much pointless, a buddy of mine wanted to block off his egr in his '86 corolla, I told him it would not do anything, guess what? So he just put it back.

[SHADY280]

so sorry about forgetting about the one manifold without egr, they arent common up here. i run methyl hydrate for smog purposes, i add 1 liter on a full tank to help clean up my emmisions. with a decent sized cam our smog laws dont let you get away with much. run good quality fuel and keep tire pressures up and clen oil as well. i add a cat just for smog to get my levels lower as well as dumping the timing to about 4 deg.

[eec564]

Dumping timing doesn't work here, as that's one thing they check. One thing with the later NA 280ZX distributors is the electric advance. If you time the engine to 9 btdc with it hooked up, the smog tech will see something to within 1 degree of spec per the computer, not knowing to read the directions on how to time/check timing printed on the bottom of the hood, and then once you're much off idle you'll loose about 10 degrees of timing, which may reduce HC and NOx. Still, any decently running car should pass our emission testing without trouble. A poorly running car also robs you of power. I don't know any race team that would want un-burned fuel dumped out their exhaust into the atomosphere and not burned up making power.

 

On a side note, I was under the impression that a mild cam would help clean up emissions on an L engine. As long as the duration and overlap weren't causing fuel to dump into the exhaust things just ran alltogether better.

 

-Eric