No luck with Smog... (yet)

Well bad news... Went to smog, the car failed miserably, with emission values way above gross polluter levels...

The smog tech pointed out, however, that the engine seems to be running quite rough and is probably consistently misfiring. He pointed out that if the misfire / rough running were eliminated, things would look very different.

I've spoken to Ireland Engineering, they also seem to believe that values that far off indicated a significant problem of some kind. So I'm hopeful that I'll find something that'll be a magic silver bullet... More to come...

The next chapter begins...

So far so good! No incidents, everything going well! Just today, I did the first recommended break-in service, consisting of an oil and filter change and a valve clearance adjustment. This was right at 750 miles on the new engine.

Everything looked shiny and really smooth when I took the valve cover off, so it seems the break-in process is going well! The valve adjustment went well, it seemed most of the valves were actually a hair on the tight side.

Fresh oil and filter are on, along with a new valve cover gasket and shiny new valve cover nuts! Next oil change is scheduled in another 1500 miles, another part of the break-in process. Before then however, there is a major hurdle to be overcome: SMOG!! I want to get that done once the engine has about 1500 or so miles on it. Hope it goes well!