Smog Check passed!!

It was time for the Aspen to undergo the once-every-other-year smog check here in San Diego. As always, I was very nervous in taking the car in for the test. When the test was over with, the technical told me "For as old as this car is, it runs surprisingly clean." San Diego county is one of the 6 counties in California in which the smog test is run on a dyno at two different speeds, 15mph and 25mph. Here's how the Aspen tested.

15 MPH

%CO2 measured : 14.1
%O2 measured: 0.7

HC (PPM)

• Max: 194
• Ave: 47
• Measured: 56

CO (%)

• Max: 1.26
• Ave: 0.20
• Measured: 0.34

NO (PPM)

• Max: 1286
• Ave: 554
• Measured: 140

25 MPH

%CO2 measured : 14.3
%O2 measured: 0.6

HC (PPM)

• Max: 161
• Ave: 37
  
• Measured: 27

CO (%)

• Max: 1.06
• Ave: 0.17
• Measured: 0.31

NO (PPM)

• Max: 1146
• Ave: 468
• Measured: 43

I was very happy with the results. Now, I can not have to worry about it for the next two years.

Exhaust Replaced

Even though softball season is officially over, that was just the spring season (and the World Series trip). Now we are into the fall season, but not nearly as time intensive as the spring. I've also been traveling quite a bit over the last couple of months, so work on the wagon hasn't really picked up like I wanted it to.

But, last weekend I made it a point to do something.... anything.. to the Party Wagon. I ended up replacing the exhaust on it with the exhaust from the T&C. The reason for the replacement is the Smog stations in CA. For whatever reason, I'm not too sure, the exhaust on the Party Wagon had been cut off just above the axle. When I went to smog it when I first got the car to CA, several shops refused to smog it becuase when they would insert the probe into the tailpipe, it would contact the dyno rollers and was unsafe.

I had a temporarpy piece of pipe installed just to get it smogged, and once that was done I took it off. Well, my smog check is coming up again in January, so I needed to fix the problem. I did by installing the exahaust (from the downpipe back) from the T&C into the Aspen.



I did encounter one problem. The flange that connects the cat to the downpipe, the holes are spaced out just a little bit too far. I was only able to bolt up one bolt on the flange. I will need to elongate one of the holes to get it to work. I also have a small exhaust leak, and I believe that it is coming from that flange. I could be wrong, but I will need to fix that as well.

Aaaah.. the fun of modifying an old car. :)

Exhaust Removed

Today I spent most of the time working on the car underneath it. Got the exhaust Y pipe, the catalytic converter, and the rest of the exhaust system removed. The only exhaust pieces left are the headers. Those will stay on the engine until after it is removed.

While under the car, I started to contemplate whether or not I should detach the engine from the transmission to remove it. Or, should I remove the engine/transmission as a complete unit. Gotta do some research on that.