Help. My festy wont pass a smog test

[vinny_perez]

Hey.
Wel i recently got my 1988 festiva (carby)
It has given me quite alot of problems but i love this car
IT does not want to pass the smog test because its "Ghost Polluted" whatever that means.
Took it to a mechanic hes telling me that my festiva is eating up to much gas and has high levels of c02?
I dont know what it can be?
Need some help. I dont know much about cars!

[bravekozak]

Two questions.
Where abouts are you located?
Compression readings for each cylinder? Or, mileage at least.

[vinny_perez]

I live in california.
Anf honestly i dont even know my own mileage -.-
Just got this baby like 2 months ago.
Runs great but eats up gas pretty fast.
The engine seems stock

[bravekozak]

You have the infamous feedback carb with miles of vacuum hoses.
I have changed engines, intakes and carbs, where even a larger engine passed emissions below the readings for a smogified smaller displacement engine. It all depends on how you tune the engine. You will probably spend a lot of money trying to have someone figure out what is wrong with that setup. I personally, do not believe it can be properly done without a shop manual.
If that were my car, I would consider an Escort/Weber carb change just for the sake of easy tuning. But, not before I checked compression on each cylinder.
If you have bad rings, it really won't help much in reducing emissions. How much does a 4 cylinder compression test cost? $20? It should be cheap, since the spark plugs are facing forward. I don't want to get you in trouble with the law in California. Just say parts weren't available. You won't be stretching the truth.

Could be a vacuum leak, bad oxygen sensor or about 50 other things.
Good luck.

(I am only 5 posts away from joining the 4000 club.)

[Movin]

You have BAR rules about putting on replacement parts. Your post makes no sense as written. If you are also being told you have ghost anything you are not getting a straight answer. All of the readings from your test can tell a lot.

My guess is that you really are using lots of fuel and you have high CO readings. Did it fail idle only?

There is a laundry list to do before a test like oil change, new plugs and filters, a can of always pass in the fuel tank and get the car fully warmed up on the hiway before a test.

In your case you need to study the vacuum diagram very carefully under the hood and start identifying hoses on the car. Most will be plugged in correctly but you may have one or two not plugged in or switched. Your cat and air filter have to be clean. If your O2 looks old screw in a new denso o2, it can be telling the system to go rich when all else is perfect.

[Bert]

(I am only 5 posts away from joining the 4000 club.)

Wow! Acknowledge this 'thread side-track' post and you'll only be 4 away from the "big time".

[Bathtub Tom]

I don't know what the emissions limits are where you live, or what figures you got, but I'd suggest the first thing you look at is your air filter.

Has it ever been changed?