The egr valve. Not that bad to pull. Need some good six point sockets.....six point. I'd also have/get a new gasket but that is me. You want to be sure the valve holds a vac.....pull a vac on the valve and be sure it holds. Then you want to be sure it is closes all the way. Once off, a can of carb cleaner and a rag. Clean the valve as you work the valve. If it is not closing off all the way....a choppy, bad idle can happen.....along with the high HC.

Do you have a timing light....timing is another thing that can throw this off.

Again at the end of the day it could be a carb adjustment is needed....just want to rule out some of the other things.

Also, do you have some of the test results? Some states test at different rpms/mph, so those might give more ideas....ie, at idle everything is fine, at a 25mph test it fails?

 

I see PA posted as I was typing "part II". I tried this all in one but my palm hit something on my laptop and I lost everything I had just typed. So the second time around I went to split it.

 

Ok thank you guys for the info I really appreciate it. I'm going to pull the egr in the next couple of days and the Pcv. I looked back at what the mechanic did when he did the carb job and supposedly he adjusted the carb and idle speed to what it's supposed to be. But still can't be sure he actually did it.... Or did it right. And I have access to a timing light so I may check that too if these other options don't pan out. And as for the test they take one test sample at idle then another at 2500rpm. I passed very low on the other two tests. I'm in Tennessee if that helps. When I tested the Pcv I couldn't hear the clicking I knew to listen for it but like you said its hard to tell. Chances are its bad anyways. And if I need to post exact test data I can tonight if that helps. I want to lean towards the egr at this point especially since that could cause an idle problem. But I'll look into all of these things. And again thanks for the help so far!

 

One thing just came to mind....I'm slow. Check for a leak at the base of the carb. A can of carb cleaner and spray light burst at the base of the carb......does the idle change?

 

There's no leak. The entire car assembly is new and is tight No leaks there. I do have a small exhaust leak out of the exhaust manifold. One bolt is missing so it's loose enough to make a putting sound but nothing major. I've got the air cleaner off of the engine now so I can take a good look at all the vacuum lines and pull the egr. Everything seemed fine as far as vacuum lines and gaskets. I'm gunna take a better look when the weather permits.

 

Address the exhaust leak...please.

 

depending on how long he was running with gas in the oil and HC's that high, i'm willing to bet the O2 is wiped out along with the catalyst...no fuel control.

 

Drove it probably 100 miles at least when it was misfiring. So I bet you're right. I'm gunna work on it some more today. I'll be pulling the egr an cleaning it and hopefully I can fix the exhaust leak (luckily its not loud at least) and I'm thinking if I can't get it to pass next time I'll probably need to check o2 sensors and cat. Hopefully that doesn't need to happen. I'm really hoping the egr is the problem.

 

Got the egr off. It was pretty dirty. It's got black sludge in it but it doesn't stick or anything. I'm cleaning it up now then getting the gasket for it and it's goin back on. I'm gunna get it all back together and I'm gunna put some stuff called "garunteed to pass" in a full tank of gas.

 

Ok so I got the egr off and cleaned. It's back on now along with everything I took off. I just drove it for the first time and there's a noticible change on the idle. It's now sitting steady around 1k and there is no hesitation that I mentioned before. It's running much much better. I'm gunna gas it up and add the additive to the fuel and well see what happens. I'll post again after my next test with the before and after numbers. And again thanks for the opinions. I appreciate any help and I'm sure if anyonr has this same problem there'll appreciate it too. But I'll post results in a week or so