Megasquirt and GA emissions
 

I'm considering a slow entry into boosted life and figure the best place to start is with the ECU. I'm in GA and the county I live in has yearly emissions where they scan the OBDII port. For those running MS and living in a emissions state, how do you resolve this ?

Thanks in advance.

Swap back to a stock ECU for emissions, a megasquirt will never pass OBD2 emissions

^^ This...

I have to go through a half-day "de-tune" (stock ECU, stock injectors, pull the exhintake cam, remove adjustable cam gears, wire open the turbo), and then 2-3 days of getting the readiness monitors to go green and/or resolve any codes that pop up. Then there's another half-day of "reversion" back to being boosted.

It's painful, but necessary.

So this is what I've been banging about in my head lately. How crappy will the car run if you just swap back to stock ECU and hope for the best? I like wrenching on cars, don't get me wrong, but having to do all that work makes me want to get a '94 ;)

I can say that I have NB customers in Cali that can do the full swap in about 2 hours, from turbo to stock. Then about 2 hours back to being boosted.

Wow ... took me half a day to do the TB/WP. lol I guess you get good at it.

The stock ECU can't deal with boost so you have to wire open the WG.

I have 650cc injectors, and the stock ECU won't be able to deal with them either, so out they go.

With exhintake cam in, the car will run, but you'll throw a code, I don't remember if it's the P0300 or P0420 code . Either way, the readiness monitors will never go green. So that has to come out.

In other words, you've got to get the car close enough to stock to get the ECU to behave itself and let you pass.

PS, I forgot about reinstalling the narrow band O2 sensors, both of them. I tried just leaving them in, but running them "cold" for 11 months significantly reduces their lifespan. Better to take them out and plug the bungs than to have to replace them every 2 years.

I just count all of this as my "turbo penance" for having so much fun the rest of the year.

Also depends on your setup greatly. Lar's kit is very easy with all vband exhaust. I also have a MKTurbo kit, while I haven't reverted mine to stock, 2 hours seems totally reasonable just guessing on what it would take for mine. Having those nice little details makes the world of difference.

Ah the joys of now living in Michigan, I have a drivers license so I can do whatever to my car no questions asked. Very glad I happened to move before the plates expired on the car.

find a place that will pass you for cash.

I came to GA from MI, so it was a shock to the system to have to go through this abuse every year.

Ah, the "good old days".

My parents live in Alpharetta outside Atlanta. Maybe I should claim residence there, get an inspectors license and y'all can pay me to pass your cars.

No comment...;)

I looked into the requirements for it and it really isn't hard to get certified. You have to have a valid ID, take a 2 day course, and pass a test scoring 80 percent or higher. I am not familiar with their actual test procedure and what they may or may not send back to the state regarding your vehicle and test results.

If any data such as actual emission results or an OBD print out is required to be sent back then I wouldn't really be able to help. If it just requires a "test" and you could say that "test" was performed with some forms then why not just get certified yourself and hook up all the other tuner people you know.

Requires equipment that went through a fairly large update 2 years ago (subsequently, a lot of OBDI emissions places shut down - only 2 years left on the OBDI stuff anyway, no point in investing) - a lot of Gen 1 OBDII stuff had issues with the upgrade, dunno if those got sorted out or not. Results are electronically transmitted to the county. They also ran a few stings - a few places got salted and wiped from the face of the earth.

Should also mention in GA - 96-00 can pass with 2 readiness not set, 01+ requires all but 1.

I actually don't mind the process. It gives me a chance to go through the car fairly thoroughly at least once a year.

Will the stock ECU handle N/A builds? Like, could I build a 11:1 CR bottom end with shaved head new valves/springs, ITBs ... the works? And not worry about a MS? Is the only really issue here a FI build?

No.

Ok .. that makes me feel better...I guess once you do something like that, you HAVE to have someone "on the inside" for emission inspections

“Sell” your car to someone out of state you can trust

or wait 2 years, all the NAs will be emission exempt.