Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine - Jalopnik Comments

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

hobocline — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:48:58 EDT

I have an 85 Cutlass with the electronic q-jet and live in the Bay Area. I'm not looking forward to my next smog check . Thanks to the smog laws here, I can't even convert the engine to FI. Not even TBI.

Still, I thought the Cutlass was bad for having a rat's nest of vacuum hoses...but that CVCC takes it.

hobocline

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

STiBrian — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:18:45 EDT

This reminds me of my '81 celica with the carb'ed 22r motor. Some tard who owned it before me pulled the vacuum lines all off then just guessed when they put em back on. When I got it smogged it failed(obviously) and I had to spend an afternoon rerouting all those damned lines.

STiBrian

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

Chuckles-the-sardonic — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:00:44 EDT

Well, I love Honda, but this is why I love Subaru more. At least ridiculous things like this are what make Honda's gas economy so famous.

Chuckles-the-sardonic

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

Naturally Exasperated? — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:36:28 EST

Is it at all possible, that this is the reason why so many US-market cars could only manage 170 horsepower from a 350ci v8? Makes me cringe.

Naturally Exasperated?

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

Froggmann — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:20:25 EST

Oh wow that brings back memories of HS auto shop. We had an 84 Civic come in with a popped headgasket, that ended up being pretty simple to fix on a budget, the head hadn't warped that much so it was just resurfaced and stuck back on. All in all disassembily to attaching the last bolt took maybe an 8 hour workign day. Tracing down every vacum line and connecting it to the correct nipple? 2 weeks.

Froggmann

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

camp6ell — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:21:42 EST

it's amazing that honda decided that was easier/cheaper than the EFI system they already had?

camp6ell

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

Turboner — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 08:30:20 EST

I once helped a friend get his CVCC through DEQ here in OR. Basically had to replace all the hoses one by one, the rubber was old and cracking. Thank god all the hardware still worked. I think that was the last "freebie" repair I did for anyone.

The PGM-FI 86 integra which was my wife's first car, was a dream compared to that. It's distributor only sawed itself in two from the inside after one of the mech advance counterweight springs broke. Easy enough to throw a new one on, only trouble we had with the 220k mile beast.

Turboner

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

skierpage — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 05:49:08 EST

I too love the third-generation Honda Civic, the most beautiful city car ever sold in the USA, especially the 1500 S I owned. 12.5 feet of urbane urban perfection.

skierpage

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

MurileeMartin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:24:49 EST

The mid-80s were sort of the smog-hardware perfect storm- you had fairly strict emissions requirements but most cars still had carburetors.

MurileeMartin

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

Grambo — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:48:15 EST

If they last so long, why have you been through six or more in under 25 years?

Grambo

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

danio3834 — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:34:25 EST

50 mpg downhill in a tail wind

danio3834

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

danio3834 — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:33:42 EST

Thankfully these nightmares are nearly all exempt here in Ontario. Notable nightmares are:

Ford's variable venturi and CFI

Chevy's electronic feedback Quadrajet

Chrysler's lean burn

and any carbureted 80's Jap with wires

Thank fully most of these I encounter either go straight carb or straight EFI

danio3834

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

TPSreports — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:30:40 EST

If the thing fails the emissions test, just put it on Ebay and sell it to somebody outside of California. Lots of people would love a relatively rust-free Japanese subcompact capable of 50 mpg. You'd be surprised what some people would pay for that.

TPSreports

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

MurileeMartin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:21:28 EST

Stark: Holy crap, the turbo RX-7 does look even worse. But like I said, the underhood sticker is a simplified version of the 3G Civic nightmare; reality is far more frightening.
Now, the 3G Si Civics are a totally different story- nice simple EFI with minimal Rube Goldberg crap. Damn, now I want an '87 CRX Si...

MurileeMartin

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

MurileeMartin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:16:03 EST

The first CVCC Hondas were able to run clean enough to skip the catalytic converters, but the third-generation Civics definitely had them. The reason for the hellishly complicated tangle of hoses and devices is that the 3G Civic had what was in effect a double fuel-delivery system (one for the extra-rich initial combustion chamber and another for the lean main combustion chamber). What happened with Smog II is that, in addition to the test changing from a high/low idle deal to a dynomometer-based load test, the HC/CO/NOx standard was tightened up to the same standards the manufacturer had to meet when the car was new (previously the standards were a bit more slack). EFI cars can usually pass, no problem, but computer-carb cars... ai-ya!

All that said, I'm not opposed to smog-control gear and inspections per se; anyone who experienced SoCal air even 20 years ago can tell you there's been a huge improvement. The problem I have is that massive sources of smog (and I'm referring to combustion byproducts not including carbon dioxide, which is a whole different debate) emitted by untouchable-by-Sacto sources in California are essentially unregulated (all those stationary gasoline-powered water pumps in the Central Valley, for example, not to mention the burning fields after harvest), while car drivers face ever-more Draconian restrictions.

MurileeMartin

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

Jon — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:45:09 EST

imoody, that's how it is up here in Oregon, too. Pre-1975 are exempt, everyone else has to go through.

That's why you always keep a friend who lives in a non-DEQ area, and register cars out at his place.

Not that I'd do that. Or have. Or will again.

As a side note, they got rid of the rollers up here, too, and now just do the simple tailpipe test at idle.

Jon

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

wohho — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:29:10 EST

or, more appropriately stupid liberal tree huggers. roflcopter.

wohho

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

imoody — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:08:11 EST

Oh my God, scotte, that's horrible. Seriously. Awful.

Stupid liberal tree huggers...

imoody

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

Frost Face — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:02:35 EST

Word on the street is you can just dump in octane booster, there are a whole lot of cheeter ways to do it up here in IL (but our rollers are going away soon)

....and Starkeshia, all that that little guy requires to control boost is a vacuum line to each wastegate and a source... looks pretty simple to me. Did you get the neon blue hose Sivart_R1?

Love you guys

Frost Face

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

scotte — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:25:37 EST

It WAS a rolling 30-year exermption in California, but the doo-gooders in the Legislature changed it a couple of years ago to be pre-1975 only exempt from SmogCheck.

scotte

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

wohho — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:05:16 EST

This diagram, and the thought of working on that makes me want to shoot puppies.

wohho

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

Sivart_R1 — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:47:48 EST

I'll 2nd that Starkeshia....after replacing all 168 vaccuum lines with silicone hoses, taking 35 feet of 3.5mm and 10 feet of 6mm, I know the true pain it is to do anything under the hood of a 3rd gen RX-7.

Sivart_R1

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

Starkeshia — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:34:53 EST

Please. That's nothing compared to the mess of vacuum hardware required to actuate the twin turbos of the 3rd Gen RX-7.

Starkeshia

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

grzydj — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:29:57 EST

Hey, at least they didn't require a pesky catalytic converter. I don't know if that's an engineering feat or not.

My brother had a CVCC Civic. That car was such a blast to drive.

grzydj

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

imoody — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:20:50 EST

It's either 25 or 30 years in California, Bob. And a mid-eighties civic is emphatically not a classic.

imoody

Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine

bobcostas — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:07:41 EST

Why wouldn't an old car like that grandfather through those tests? Here in Tejas, the oil wonderland, cars over 20 years don't need emissions testing. They're classics.
~CR

bobcostas