1993 3.2l SHO badly failed emissions.

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zoomlater

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can you post a picture of the y-pipe, catalytic converters and the rest of the exhaust. What you wrote previously below makes me wonder what else the previous owner did. In a previous post, zak asked if the previous owner gutted the cats, etc.

"The car was registered as of Dec. 2018 so its only been about a year. The PO removed the mufflers and replaced one side with a magnaflow glasspack and the other with a straight pipe, which I didnt think would matter because mufflers don't typically change emissions. You can smell the richness of the exhaust and it kinda burns your eyes when you're behind the exhaust pipes for a bit"
 

rubydist

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I agree, at this point you need better cats.
 

zak

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see my post about thermostat partially stuck open in this thread. Where is your temperature needle sitting (what letter) when warmed up?
 
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Ksoder

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I have just replaced my thermostat when I did all of the other things and it sits at the a in normal. I am replacing my O2 sensors tomorrow and am considering adding a bunch of emissions additives, thoughts?



Some things here to note that I just realized I forgot to say earlier are...

My fuel pump is loud, and I can hear it constantly (not sure if its a problem)

The PO told me he "just got a tune up done on the ecu" (not sure the validity of this)



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sperold

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The PO told me he "just got a tune up done on the ecu" (not sure the validity of this)

This needs further investigation; your current ECU could be contributing to your woes.

Find out what is meant by this statement, and ask about hollowing out the cats as well.

Just so you know, I have personally failed the dyno e-test with brand new cats.

Did you ever perform the heat analysis of your cats, as suggested earlier? It seems almost everyone has a hand held temperature sensor (uses light beam).
I had it performed after a number of failures, and it verified the cats were dead.
I installed new cats, and it passed.
 

SHOCH

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I’m going with dead cats, rich kills them, plus I’m a dog person so.....
I’m so disappointed with myself for not mentioning tampons are great for plugwell oil removal.
Harbor freight has those temp guns for $15-20, use it all the time, get slapped at the bar for checking girls to see if they really are hot.
Loud fuel pump??
 

Ksoder

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Did a temp check, they were both about 25 degrees hotter on the output than the input, how do I investigate the ecu "tune"?

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luigisho

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The only way to tune this thing directly via ecu is with an eprom chip. You can't really reflash these things like later model cars.

If there is a chip it will be sticking out of the port in the back of the ecu. To get at it--take stuff out of the glove box, press both sides in so the sides of the glove box will come out of the groove on each side and allow the glove box to lower completely. It has a hinge at the bottom and will just hang down. Look at the metal box near the top and that should be your ecu. If you see a large eprom chip sticking out, remove it, and then disconnect the battery for a little while to reset the ecu to regular factory settings. If there is no chip you will see a piece of tape or something removable covering the rear port-- or it could also be exposed with nothing plugged into it.

Looking for a good pic from all angles but this is about as good as I can find. Look at the pics. The big extruding part on one end goes through the firewall and plugs into the engine harness plug on the engine side. The back will be facing you when you lower the glove box.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ECM-ECU-Engine-Computer-Electronic-Control-Module-3-0L-Fed-Fits-92-93-Sable-6285/233122662756?hash=item3647318964:g:jaIAAOSw651cWa2~&fits=Year:1993|Model:Taurus|Make:Ford
 

sperold

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Did a temp check, they were both about 25 degrees hotter on the output than the input

Your cats are not dead.

I had cats that were the same temp in and out, and although they failed the dyno e-test, it came incredibly close to passing in NOx category, while passing in the other two.

Have you eliminated the EGR code yet? That distress signal going into you ECU, prompts the ECU to adjust timing, fuel and whatever else it can to compensate for what it thinks is a problem.
 

rubydist

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Harbor freight has those temp guns for $15-20, use it all the time, get slapped at the bar for checking girls to see if they really are hot.

LOL I gotta try that some day...
 

Ksoder

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The CEL has not come back on since replacement of parts

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Ksoder

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What about fuel injectors?


I'm thinking the incomplete combustion is because its dumping WAYYYY too much fuel into the cylinders because its used 1/4 tank in the last 20 miles of me driving to to and from the emissions place.

Also, im just poking my head around, could the TPS be sending a bad signal? Something else ive been confused about is that the HC is unburned gas going through and CO is incomplete combustion, indicating rich Air/fuel ratio right? But NOX is from heat and indicating a lean mixture, so how the **** are all three so high?


Im sorry about the iffy and shorter replies recently, im just getting seriously frustrated at the car and how it seems like nothing I do changes anything

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rubydist

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it is possible that you have one or more fuel injectors that do not shut off all the way. however, the typical first symptom of that is a hard restart when hot, because the engine will flood. since you didn't mention that issue, I discounted the possibility of leaking injectors.
 

luigisho

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that would be my next area to look catalytic converters and fuel. I can't believe that much unburned fuel would not throw an O2 code or something.
 

Ksoder

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it is possible that you have one or more fuel injectors that do not shut off all the way. however, the typical first symptom of that is a hard restart when hot, because the engine will flood. since you didn't mention that issue, I discounted the possibility of leaking injectors.
If one or two werent shutting off, thats still 4 cylinders that are fine, would that be enough to **** the emissions the way it is

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Ksoder

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**new stuff**

Just now, immediately after starting it and letting it idle, no visible smoke from exhaust. A minute or two later, only one of the two pipes has white lookimg exhaust coming out of it?


Its about 60 degrees and raining right now and its the first start of the day...?

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Greg Millard

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Hello, This is my first post as a day 3 SHO owner, so its sad to have to introduce my car in the emergency help section...

I have a 1993 SHO Automatic with the 3.2l and just went to have emissions done to register the car and things went horribly...

Here were the first set of results...

Hydrocarbons (g/mi) 4.02 where 1.00 is max

Carbon Monoxide (g/mi) 94.55 where 12.00 is max

NOX (g/mi) 5.14 where 2.5 is max


After getting these rather discouraging numbers, I went home with much worry, once home, I realized my CIL had come on so I ran the code which came out to be #332 Insufficient EGR Flow Detected. I then immediately realized that my green vacuum line running to my EGR valve was disconnected from the (not sure what it is but its got a red wire running directly into the manifold and the green one to my EGR valve). So, I plugged it back in and thought "Aha, gotcha!" Little did I know, I did not indeed "gotcha".

Second set of results

Hydrocarbons (g/mi) 3.33 where 1.00 is max

Carbon Monpxide (g/mi) 65.58 where 12.00 is max

NOX (g/mi) 4.75 where 2.50 is max


Im pretty sure those numbers mean I am running super rich so I was thinking O2 sensors, cats, MAF, busted Fuel Pressure Regulator Diaphram, and the usual stuff, so before I go diving into unnessecary repairs, what do you guys think is the issue here? Thanks
 

luigisho

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**new stuff**

Just now, immediately after starting it and letting it idle, no visible smoke from exhaust. A minute or two later, only one of the two pipes has white lookimg exhaust coming out of it?


Its about 60 degrees and raining right now and its the first start of the day...?

Hard to say. Condensation is a byproduct of combustion so it could be water vapor or a mix of that and unburned fuel. Is it still as fuel smell/eye irritating as before? There is still something missing here. Either the cats are not burning off enough of whats left and/or there is too much fuel from injectors or something like that.

If you have proper: fuel delivery, metered air, spark, and timing along with decent catalytic converter function it should get you in the ballpark with maybe only some help needed given the age.
 

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