Passed!!!

["Eric H." <ejham@xxxxxxx>]

Today, I am pleased to announce that my GTV6 successfully
passed her
emissions testing! She passed it with lower readings than my
Volvo, in
fact. Thanks to all for your advice and input.

The culprit turned out to be the most stunningly obvious
item in the
system: the catalytic converter. This last weekend I set out
to install
a new oxygen sensor and found to my shock two things...1)
the old sensor was welded in place, and 2) the left pipe
from the header was mashed almost flat. (Yeah, I'm
embarrassed to say that this was the first time I'd been
under the car since I bought it 6 months ago.) The exhaust
system was a hack...I knew that when I bought the car...the
cat had been removed by one owner and then one had been
hastily added to make the car saleable. I called around and
found a shop that would replace the pipe and add the nut for
the O2 sensor.

At the shop, the owner put the car on the lift, and invited
me under to help explain what I wanted done. We discussed
things and decided that replacement of all pipe from the
headers to the cat would be best. Making a long story
short...he found that the innards of the cat were 50% gone.
He ended up fabricating the pipes, adding the O2 fitting,
putting in a new 3 inch-piped cat, replacing the header
gaskets for $300 including the cat. The pipe material used
wasn't stainless...it's called 'aluminized steel' or
somesuch. Rust may appear in about 5 years. He seemed to
like the car, he told me he tried to reduce the sharpness of
the bends where he could and he used 2.5 inch pipe. To my
eyes, it was very good work. (If anyone in the Tampa Bay
area needs exhaust work to spec, this guy is good and is
interested in seeing more Alfas [mine was his 'first
time']...e-mail me for info)

Anyway, the car passed with no detectable CO emissions and
less than 10% of the allowed HC emissions. Better readings
than my Volvo! Plus I examined and replaced many worn and
failed items along the way (thanks especially to Bill at
Mastro for the injectors and the regulator, they needed
replacement for sure)

Sorry for the long-winded story, but there's a moral: don't
overlook the obvious! I'd assumed that since the cat had
only 12,000 miles and was less than 3 years old that it was
ok...WRONG!

- - Eric H., Clearwater, FL
1983 GTV6 which gets a good bath this weekend and any treats
she wants
1988 Volvo 740 who is looking less and less desirable (good
thing he's living with a friend of mine -- I'd run an ad
tomorrow)

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