92 3VZ FE Failed Emissions !!!!?

[scprandy]

I just replaced the head gaskets on this motor, I was a little leary about even spending the money as it has 217,000 miles on it , but hey , when I was done , it runs great !!
However, when I took it for emissions testing , it failed !!
The real culprit is the NO(nitrous), it was 1483 and allowed is 848.
The HC(hydrocarbon), it was 141 and allowed is 120.
Is there anybody out there that knows what area I should start looking , the guy at the smog shop said that it could be a clogged up EGR valve?
I should note that the motor did have alot of carbon build up, I'm thinking that when the head gasket went, it cleaned all that carbon off the piston and junked up the EGR.
I hate to just start replacing sensors blindly , I got this car cheap due to the head gaskets being blown, and I would like to keep the cost down.
Any help?
Thanks in advance for any input.

[rat42]

cleaning the egr,pcv,maf might help, and if you diy shouldn't cost much. after that it looks like a bad cat.

[Eye8Pussies]

I never could figure out what all those numbers meant...all I cared was that my car passed with flying colors

but to help you on your question, it's quite possible that any excess build was unfortunately being being burned during hte test if it was shortly after you got your head gasket replaced, but more likely than not, it's just build up from over time that would have made your car fail anyway

I would recommend a thorough cleaning with seafoam to get rid of all your carbon deposits and then give it another try- something as simple as that could do it- beyond that, it's time to start replacing components, so you may as well try


also though, did you run the car until it wsa hot before you did your test? that makes a world of difference in the numbers- a hot engine and exhaust system produces less pollution than cold / luke warm

[Luckynumber5]

Clean your egr system, Its not that hard if you did the head gasket buy new gaskets for the valve, take it off and go to town with a wire brush and some seafoam, that should help, I know with just 160k miles mine was pretty junked up, course wth no emissions here in TN I just deleted mine all together. Good luck!

[scprandy]

Thanks for all your input people, I'll try cleaning the EGR and PVC, I've never heard of the Seafoam product but I'm assumeing I can find it at Autozone.
I did have the motor hot when it was tested.
I was reading in another post that if a CAT gets water into it, it will "poison" or ruin it, anybody know if this is true?
If that is the case , then with the head gasket gone as bad as it was , I'm sure there was water gewtting that far back, oh well, hope CAT's arent that expensive!!
Thanks people!!