MOT failure - Emmisions

[laurenceyon]

Hi All,

I hope you are all well, I need your advice.

Righty, so my 1990 16V GTI has failed the MOT on an Epic scale, almost to the point where I believe the engine cannot be spared or maybe it can? Depending on the advice from you guys.

The Carbon monoxide emissions are off the charts, at something like 5.5%.. THe maximum is 3.5. It also pumps out dense blue smoke.

I've sourced a new engine but in honesty i'd rather keep the one I have as apart from the issues above it runs really well, now is this repairable? And what steps do I need to take to remedy the issue?

*It's also worth noting that I have a powerflow exhaust system on there and the engine has been tuned but i'm not sure sure to what extent.*

And also the mainbeam tell tale light isn't working, how do I fix that?

Thanks in advance for you help.

Laurence

[gazareth]

hi what mileage is on the engine? maybe its just your valve stem oil seals that are gone. and if so you could rebuild your new cylinder head then swap it over. regarding the full beam lamp. im sure I saw a write up somewhere in this forum about stripping down the clocks and changing the bulb so have a hunt around. or you could just get another set of clocks and swap your speedo head over (if an inaccurate mileage bothers you that is).

[laurenceyon]

Also the engine overheated a while back due to a faulty fan switch, literally cooked the engine and boiled the water off. On replacing the fan switch this seemed to rectify the issue however, i'm unsure whether this may have caused any further damage. HELP.

[laurenceyon]

Valve Stem Seals was/is the first thing i'm going to look at, could it be anything else in additional to that?

I'll search the forum for the tell tale thing tomorrow.

Thanks thus far

[Sgt_Lemon]

I didn't think mk2s even had an emissions test because of the age. My mot says N/A for emissions, the same reason why you can run a standard decat

[gazareth]

im afraid to say if you overheated your engine badly and cooked the piston rings then they are going to need replaced or new engine.it happened to me with my mk1 escort many moons ago. engine was running absolutely mint. not burning a drop of oil but 1 night the water pump sprung a leak and by the time I had noticed I had already melted a piston. so pulled the engine and changed the melted piston thinking that would fix it. no such luck. after I got it running again I was burning a gallon of oil every three days and having to pull the spark plugs every 50 miles or so to wire brush them clean. ah good times lol.

[gazareth]

its just a basic emission test for the mk2. checked at idle and as long as its below 3.5 your good to go. not like the modern cars you have to rev to mid range for so long then let idle for a while to.

[chubbz1005]

my old cavalier sri redtop used to have the same problem i got round it by bouncing it off the limiter just before he did the test worked for 3 years

[gazareth]

yeah an engine needs a good thrash now and again to keep it clear. an Italian tune up eh. the mk2 cavalier sri 1.8s used to be rapid in their day. wouldn't mind getting my hands on a good 1 of them. my apologies if that offended anyone here lol.

[chubbz1005]

id love a mk2 but u cant get one unless u wanna spend daft money now