bengali548

hey guys

i have a stock 93 civic cx. when i bought the car the guy was telling me how he did all the maintenance himself with only synthetic however when i did my etest today i failed due to my "NO ppm" being too high (MORE than double the limit).

all other categories passed with flying colours

after doing some research i found that the cat converter and the EGR valve were the main culprits for this section failing

my 93 civic is completely stock so i wouldnt be surprised if the cat was back from 1993 also. however, i dont know where the egr valve is located.

my dillema is this

i can swap the cat for 200 and POTENTIALLY pass (seems very likely) or get an "emission pass" (cough cough) but im worried about my performance/reliability

the car is purely a beater so i want to keep it as reliable as possible but if the high NO isn't going to be a huge problem (or if it wont lead to a huge problem) than would there be a point to switching out the cat?

thoughts? oppinions?

MPR

Do you have a d15z1 engine? If not, then you have no egr valve.

Yes, replace the cat and retest.

kaval

replace the cat, retest, enjoy beater

bengali548

is it possible to clean out the converter? i ask because my bolts look pretty seized on

Robb

iTrader: (1)

Your car is very old, so maybe your 02 and cat are too.. replace both with OEM parts and you'll be good for another 10+ years (and get much better gas mileage)

GL

MPR

No you can't clean out a cat. Just replace it.

Janette

I have a 1992 Civic LX which failed emissions test. Same results as yours. Replaced cat and passed with a NO reading of zero. Yes Zero! So go ahead and replace. JT

EF.Hatch

A new cat will lower NOx but to be safe check and possible flush your coolant system. While your at it and before your put on the new cat, seafoam your car. High compression equals more heat which equal more NOx. Carbon build up raises compression. I had this problem with my B16A civic. In the end I almost passed under regular civic standards but due to high comp my NOx where a couple 100 to high.

One more thing when you buy a new cat just make sure it has more than 400 cells. The cat will have a number inside on the element. This is the cell count. More cells means more the cat will filter. Under 400 is considered a race cat and is harder to pass etest with.

Janette

Yes as mentioned earlier I replaced my cat and that was with a stock one, so it is good to go with emissions re-test reading of zero NO. Not mentioned, a very clean low km (60,000) Civic 2000 model D15B engine swap into my 1992 Civic LX with some revisions to accomodate new engine which is a BIG improvement re acceleration and going up hills than the old engine.

MPR

Seafoam might help, yes, but flushing the coolant system will do nothing to help etest.