I recently bought a 87 240 with 225+K (broken odometer at 225) on ebay for my teenage sons. Since, I drive a 87 740 with 270K daily I figured I had a pretty good handle on maintenance issues and might as well get them off on a good start! While I'm no mechanic I've learned a lot here about keeping these cars going!

The guy I bought it from told me the head had been rebuilt and it looks like this was indeed done. He couldn't get it to start and run and told me it had a problem with blowby so oil was getting up into the throttle body and causing it to die and not restart. He also said he had just replaced the TPS since it had been ruined by the oil. I asked if the flame trap had been cleaned and he didn't know what I was talking about so I figured I'd be able to solve the oil problem pretty easily.

My sons' first job was to clean the flame trap and hoses which were thickly caked and completely blocked. We put new plugs in and he also cleaned the throttle body but it still didn't want to start. I noticed that the TPS that had been installed was adjusted as far clockwise as it could go so I adjusted it to the middle and the car started right up and runs smoothly, although the idle seems a bit high. I also added about 8 gallons of fresh premium gas and a can of BG44 fuel system cleaner. The oil pressure sending unit was also leaking a good bit of oil so I replaced it.

We have to have both safety and emissions inspections here - it passed the safety inspection (lights, brakes, suspension, etc.) but failed the emissions inspection. The car runs smoothly with plenty power, no smoke or odors.

The results of the emissions inspection were HC 1.8849 grams/mile which was a failed result (has to be under 0.8000), the CO reading was 13.4256 grams/mile which passed, the NOx reading was 5.6761 which also failed (must be under 2.0000).

Does anybody have any experience/ideas on what to try to get the emissions within the standards?

Could the BG44 cause the high emissions? (It is still in the gas in the tank - will need to drive a good 150miles or so to use it up and until I can pass inspection I can't get license plates to drive it legally).

Is there an adjustment for idle speed? What about the TPS, what is the proper way to adjust it?

If I can't get the emissions levels corrected I'll have to park it for six months until 2007 - then it will be exempt from the emissions requirement!

Sorry for the long post.

Jim