Hello,

Well it failed again,old readings:

NOx 1273 standard //reading 3302 fail

HC 167 standard //reading 28 pass

CO% 1.57 standard //reading 0.00 pass

CO2% //reading 13.0

O2% //reading 2.5

What I did to repair:

Replaced T-stat with 180 degree stat.

Replaced the air filter, amazing how cruddy they get in a year.

Took 2 degrees off the timing, down to 10 BTDC, It was a bit over 12 in my guestamatiom per the scale on the marks. Also the flame trap was clogged,

AGAIN!! also the Throttle body was crudded up again. How long is this repair supposed to last?? I change my oil every 3k, so I guess blowby is the culprit here. It has 220k on the odometer, so I guess its expected.

Also cleaned out the idle motor valve, again, lots of crud in there too.

Also tested the oxygen sensor, its putting out a .1 volt reading, remove a vac line, it jumps to like .5-.7 then settles down again when normal. Per my repair books, I guess this is normal. Its idling better, but not smooth.

I suspect my idle motor is shot. If it goes through inspection, I'll worry about that then. All vac lines are secure, replaced a couple of suspect ones. Can't detect any vac hiss anywhere.

New Readings:

NOx 1273 standard //reading 2154 fail

HC 167 standard //reading 19 pass

CO% 1.57 standard //reading 0.00 pass

CO2% //reading 11.0

O2% //reading 3.6

So all the readings dropped from the repairs, so I did something right.

Where to go from here? Is it possible my catalytic converter was bad out of the box? I've been reading Bentley's and Hayne's manuals trying to figure out where to go next. Bentley's mentions about noise from the exhaust indicating a plugged component, thus the Cat...It has a very annoying metallic vibration sound to it,the exhaust that is.

Is there anything else I can do, or is there a way to check a catalytic converter without an exhaust analyzer?

Thanks for any info you can provide me.

Sorry its so long....

Chuck.