Peter Zimmermann

I had to do the CA required bi-annual smog test about a week ago. My car is an '82 SC equipped with o.e. cat, functional Lambda, and 203,000 miles (never rebuilt) on the clock. The guys at the test center were definitely impressed (they told me two tests ago that it runs cleaner than a four year old Honda)!

rusnak

Let me guess, that vehicle has been recently tuned? Very sweet running motor! Congratulations!

Brucechas

Very nice!

Peter Zimmermann

About 1500 miles and 2 1/2 years since the last valve adjustment. I had an injector fail about 1,000 miles ago; all that I did was diagnose the miss (found a dark spark plug), replace the injector and take the car for a blast on the freeway. The car is absolutely consistent with the way it runs, and I make sure it gets a sip of Stabil when it has to sit for a while.

whalebird

Good find with the injector. These can be overlooked with long term damage resulting.

500

Your car is living proof of what a big difference diligent maintenance makes in the long-term.

MUSSBERGER

That's probably what the 78 would show

whalebird

I'm just glad we don't have that testing here (yet). I'm all for clean running, well tuned vehicles and my junk usually runs well (now the Ford bronco might worry me at a test).
However, if I did have to get smog testing, I would certainly go to "Best Smog"...I love that name.

Edgy01

"Don't touch my junk."

Peter Zimmermann

It's funny too, it wasn't a bad fail. Instead of a nice umbrella pattern, it kinda peed out one side (and the umbrella was still intact on the other side); just enough to mess with the spark plug at idle/low revs.

whalebird

then you found a plug...what diagnosis did you go thru? where you looking for a problem when you found the plug, or was the plug change a mesure of mainteneance. Did you go straight to the injector? Reason I ask, is because I accidentaly found injector issues(similar to your minor drivability description) that led me to replace all four...yes this is my 924S. Car has run flawlessly for 35K miles since. I could,at times, detect a slight knock. Compression was good, oil pressure was good...I was leaning toward wrist pin. Tore it apart this past september and found the pistons were worn on the skirts below spec and I suspect the bores are equally damaged althought I haven't bore-gauged them yet. As I have stalled on the project, pistons are as much as a set of mahles for a 911 plus alusil block bore etc. The whole things totaled as far as I'm concerned so I am searching for a GOOD used motor to get it going - it's a daily driver. GOOD is hard to find in 944 2.5/2.7 circles. Point being, I think the cylinders were washed down from bad injectors and now I'm in a tough spot deciding what to do. If in fact I am correct in my theory on this...LOOK at your injectors people. My 924S injection is very much the same as a 3.2 Carrera, Peter's SC is a different animal injection wise, but I feel it's prudent to have this sorted on our older cars.s

jakeflyer

Peter, wish my 83 was in the same boat. Last smog test my “special smogger” took about 40 minutes on the machine to get the numbers he needed.

I have wondered if you still had the car—red is it not? I think everyone was happy when you decided not to sell it. I remember the frantic posts of “keep the car” Pete. Mob rule in this situation was happy.

Hope all is well with you and yours. .

Peter Zimmermann

I could feel, during normal driving, that the car was suddenly a little "off." The idle got a bit lumpy, and accel from a stop seemed labored. I said, uh, oh, and asked that it not be the fuel distributor! After the car cooled down, I loosened all six plug connectors, but let them rest against the tips of each plug (that way I didn't have to overcome the pressure clip when removing each from a running engine). I started the car, and while listening closely, took each plug connector away from its plug, one at a time. When I got to cyl #5 I noticed no additional drop-off in revs, or any additional roughness (in other words - no change). I shut off the car, and pulled plugs 4, 5 & 6. 4 & 6 were that perfect light tan color, 5 was dark. AH, hah! Got a new injector from my favorite wholesaler, installed it with a new plug, and my 6-cylinder car was once again alive and well.

GREAT to hear from you!!! Too bad your '83 gave you fits, that car lives in CA, right?

Yep, I kept my SC, and then put spoilers on it and switched insurance policies so my wife can drive it to work once in a while.

UberXY

I had to get an '85 ZZZ smog tested on a rolling dyno a few years ago. I had just bought the car in another state and had not had time to fool with it.

The first test it failed, but not badly. Then I tuned it, changed the oil, and put on a new non-OEM cat. The second time it passed with amazingly good numbers.

As Peter points out, with good basic care a Porsche does fine on smog.

rusnak

My friend's 82 sc failed w high hc yesterday. I told him to check his ignition wires and check for a loose spark plug because the tech said the mixture was good and there was no miss. The coil wire was almost completely loose.

This thread makes me want to check the injectors. Do you guys run the fuel pump (jumper) w engine off to check injector spray pattern?