Smog blues....in so cal
 

btw, the butt-connected 5wire o2 ngk i bought from ebay $60 is not working no matter what i try to requesting refund :(. also bought a fully intact new L1H1 on ebay from diff seller for $88 I post in seperate thread how that works:o . my vx failed smog last week (ya i took ages gettin bringing it to a place), across from the chula vista dmv. after going to cheap mexican muffler place(luv their prices) it turned out my 2yr old car-sound?? cat was bad and some of the honeycomb was loose inside making my NOX super high :turtle:. I had a spare obd2 49state cat welded in (new) and once I get a diff direct connect 5wire wideband o2 sensor I'll go back for retest. Additionally I found a VX throttle body & will be swapping out the JDM Intake manifold (looks like DX/EX sized TB on it) to decrease air-intake. Once I pass then will install the APexi gen1 VAFC meter ala Boomslang harness :eek:

VIVA VX !!

Good luck with the retest, :thumbup:

A brand new cat should sneak you through. I would definately take off everything and put it back 100% stock then add the parts back piece by piece keeping an eye on the mileage and if you lose tq in city driving. A tb that is too big causes slight stumbles you may not notice but your computer goes rich/lean extra times and that hurts economy/emissions. I'm in so cal too and want a vx powered honda, so im watching your story on here.

oh snap forgot bout this thread. ya I got new cat on, but not retested yet. still have the bigger IM (jdm D15B) that came with my vtec-E & had an egr on it -weird. LOL i have a us VX IM & TB but my add kicked in weeks ago and i missplaced the butterfly plate from that TB ....to clean it... DX/EX butterfly plate is like 1-2mm bigger diameter so not proper. Additionally, i've tried 2 different new 5wire o2 sensors from egay, one butt-connected which i went to solder but may have crossed 2 wires cuz diff colors from the oem. Also a complete oem 1 that had like a lil resistor between 2 pins on the connector??? just mailed that one back cuz it still set off the CEL even after i reset the ECU 15amp fuse. stay tuned... sigh.

update ... finally got a proper usdm VX intake manifold w/TB and swapped it in , i noticed the jdm 1.5L vtec-E IM looked very similar to the VX except the TB was about the size of a DX or EX Tb. Now to adapt or find a cx/vx air-tube to my EX/oem air filter box. home depot lookout! the VX tb is about 2" diameter so ill need to adapters like a 2-2.5 and a 2.5 to 3" or such. New cat welded in back in July so gettin close to stock. Also put on some new Kumho Solus 185/70/13 tires 70k so that helps along with an adjustable front Upper-A arm camber kit & new bushings for them A-arms.

My JDM vtec-e intake was an identical size to the usdm one I had.

GOOD NEWS! I passed 2 weeks ago finally after getting an o2 that worked. Additionally, I bought a $330 carb CA approved obd2 OEM header/cat which lowered NOX and rest to very low values (post later). Course the smog tech scratched his head with the D15B jdm stamp...but was ok with the vtec-E valve cover & excellent results from the sniffer. Now to turn in these 2 fix-it-tickets for expired tags .

41mpg my best with mostly freeway driving. I strongly suspect this block is higher comp then the Z1, of which i've seen an imported Z1 besides my vtec-E D15B.

My exhaust from A pipe back is 2" so I shall be going back to the oem 1.75" piping very soon and will be curious if that helps the mpg. Maybe install a crane Hi-6R capacitive ignition i have laying around if i cant trade it for the smaller Hi-6.

Front tires = 13/185/70, rear 14/185/60