Step 1: Try (unsuccessfully) to pass emissions.

If you saw the first entry in this blog and you know anything about emissions equipment on carbureted engines, you'd be chuckling at the thought of me trying to make it through inspection. I chuckled a bit at it myself at the time, and decided it was worth the $25 inspection fee (with a free re-check) to see what happens.

I took a few steps to increase my probability of success... from 20% to..... 25%.

1. Put a muffler and tailpipe on (Magnaflow muffler, aluminized 2" pipe).
2. Hook up the PCV valve.
3. Hook up the EGR valve.

This left a few things unattended to: the pulse air system was completely unhooked and dumping into the atmosphere, the carb BADLY needed a re-jet and would barely idle without setting the low idle to ~1000rpm. Not to mention that it would occasionally smoke through the tailpipe (excess fuel smoke, not head gasket or oil).

So off I went to the local Boulder, CO county emissions test station. Made it there without stalling or smoking, and I actually thought I had a chance in hell of passing.

Things looked good until the fine young man that was to pull my truck onto the dyno got in and I commenced explaining the electric fuel pump run on a switch and the push-button start.

Me: "No, the key has to be ON. Ok, now turn the fuel pump on. No, that's the headlights. Yes, that one. Now. Push the big black button over there and it will start. DON'T GIVE IT SO MUCH GAS, IT'S A CARBURETOR!"

**insert engine starting with a Hiroshima sized plume of smoke out the tailpipe**

Not good.

After he finally got it onto the dyno after stalling twice, he painstakingly completed the dyno test and shut the truck off at the end.

Enter emissions "tech" #2, exit "tech" #1 who knows how to start the jeep.

After fumbling around with buttons and knobs for a solid 5 minutes, they resort to pushing the jeep off the dyno and dubbing it un-testable. I get in the drivers seat and start it on the first crank. Great.

The upside of the whole thing is that because it was dubbed "un-testable", they waived the $25 fee. The "tech" said he would have failed it anyway because of an incomplete air system and the fact that there was smoke coming from the tailpipe. I didn't even start to explain that it was (partially) because of tester incompetence...

On the way home I decided it was time to hit the interweb in search of a V8.... and so I did. Details to come next time!

The beginning...

Ah, a new blog... I figure I haven't updated my other blog in a few months because of my constant attention to this project, so why not take on another responsibility...

I have been working on this project for a few months, so bear with me as I catch up on what has been done and what my plans are. A little background, this is my 4th Jeep. Previously I have had a 1980 CJ7, a 1985 CJ7, and a 1999 TJ. I'll start with a rundown of what we're working with here with Jeep #4...

New-to-me specs:

• 1983 Jeep CJ7
• 258 I-6/T-5/d300
• 149,xxx original miles
• Hard top/hard doors
• YJ front spring conversion (shoddy welding, will need re-doing)
  
• No exhaust
• No heater
  
• Bald 31" BFG A/Ts
• Clean title
  

Total Cost: $1000.00

The plan from day 1 was a V8 swap to replace the tired and poorly tuned 258. I'll get into that in the next post. For now, here are some more pics of the starting point (after significant cleaning, mind you...).

Saws-all flat fender and rear fender cuts...

Missing headlight bezel...

Beastly power steering line leak. Rotted lines, easy fix.
Dash in decent condition - no rust.
Floors fiberglassed by previous owner.
What a rat's nest. No way this will pass emissions.

Stay tuned - I've got a lot of catching up to do, so I'll be posting regularly until I'm up-to-date. Then my posting will be limited by the cash in my pocket.