Hey Fellas,
I just bought a 1989 4x4 Ford F-150 5.0L 302 5 speed manual and I failed my smog test for CA. I was told the air injection, catalytic convertors and timing were the issues. Does anybody have information on what might have failed the air injection and the timing if the gun read 8 points retard? Supposedly this would make the truck gutless since it is 18 points off what it's supposed to be at... However... It doesn't seem to be. The mechanic who performed the smog test also was messing with my throttle cable and left it disconnected when I left, making me look like a real dummy for thirty minutes, till I figured out the problem and told him to connect it back or we would have a civil issue in court. Truck is boss, brothers. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
-Adam

 

Well first off, I would tell him to redo the test without screwing with my truck, if of course your willing to go though the hassle, in the very least I think I would want my money back...

BUT
You'd need information on what the truck failed, like idle test, high rpm test ect, you paid for the results and they should have given you a print-out of what test(s) was failed, this information comes in handy for determining what the cause is.

For the 89 year model, its electronically timed ignition controlled EFI, which basically means that a computer is adjusting the timing based on how the truck is running BUT if you timing it to far off the computer won't be able to adjust it enough to make the motor run effectively enough to pass the emissions test (for starters).

Cats have a life expectancy of around 1-3 years, most bad cats will cause an idle test fail but won't effect many other tests. (some universal cats can go as low as 20 dollars at the local auto-part stores, baring ignorant employees).

As for the Air Injection pump, lol, I don't like how the pump is "supposed" to work to begin with and have yet to fail a test with it not -actually- working in three different inspection states, so, I would worry about this last (this system can be ridiculously expensive for something that [imo] doesn't do a damned thing).

 

Find a different mechanic. Base timing should be 10 degrees before top dead center, yours is at 8. I'm guessing this "mechanic" didn't disconnect the SPOUT jumper before checking timing. Doing this will prevent the computer from advancing timing, and give a true base timing reading. I wouldn't worry too much about the timing.

Not sure how your state works, but here in RI, emissions inspection stations are required to give you a printout of your inspection results, whether it passed or not. Simply saying "your cats are bad" gives no information at all about their assumption.