I'm trying to pass my aircare test and I failed because of too much carbon coming out of the exhuast. I took it to a guy that adjusted it and tested it with his machine and said it was good to go. It failed twice after he tried to fix it. Any tips?

 

Hydrocarbons are unburned fuel. Which is insufficient combustion. Poor ignition or too rich.
In what rpm range did it fail? Idle or part throttle?
For idle you can adjust the idle mixture but part throttle would be a little more tricky. A good tune up wouldn't hurt either. Cap, plugs, rotor, check wires and a new air filter, lean the choke out. The choke shouldn't be on during the test but in my state they never warm them up enough and it's a common practice to fail you that way. That way they can sell you all the aforementioned stuff and make a dime.

 

We need more information about the test to understand why you failed.

Is it just a wand in the tailpipe at idle? Do they run it at a certain RPM? Do they put it on rollers and run it at 60mph? What pollutants do they actually test for? What are the levels considered acceptable?

In the US, it is almost impossible to fail with an antique car, because the standards are either very low, or the cars are exempt past a certain age. If you move "south of the border," we'll give you a free sombrero, a gun, and instructions on cheating on your income taxes - C'mon down!

- Eric

 

Posts like this make me thankful that I live in AZ! No emissions testing for any car registered under classic car ins! Whooptie whoot! Sorry, always celebrating that! I did have this problem before they passed the new law in 07. I leaned it out and poured in a gallon of denatured alcohol with a gallon of gas. It ran like crap but passed! YMMV, anyone else had success with this? I think that the cause of my problem was that the idiots at the testing place would tromp it getting to 60, if you open those huge Qjet secondaries there is bound to be a fuel filled environment or am I wrong?

 

I'm increasing my carbon footprint.

 

[quote=TripDeuces;278100] For idle you can adjust the idle mixture but part throttle would be a little more tricky. A good tune up wouldn't hurt either. Cap, plugs, rotor, check wires and a new air filter, lean the choke out. quote]

X2 on the tuneup.

Dump a bottle of carb cleaner (slowly) down the throat of the carb while having someone gently keep the rpms up. You will see clouds of smoke come out the back.

Or dump the bottle of carb cleaner (Lucas Oil Gas Treatment - worked well for me) in your tank and fill it up. Then go for a long drive-2 hours. Floor it a few times to clean it out.

 

In Alberta there are no inspections either, however they held voluntary inspections about 10 years ago and I thought I'd try it. There was no course of action if you failed, just the knowledge that if there were inspections you'd fail. They based the emission standards on the emissions that were in place when the car was built. I passed. I got a static sticker for the window that said "I Drive Smog Free". My car is a Z95 car (Catalytic Converter Delete) so I was pretty happy.

Have you had the car tuned up? Perhaps that's all it needs.