Section 1036.246 - Verifying deterioration factorsWe may require you to test in-use engines as described in this section to verify that the deterioration factors you determined under § 1036.245 are appropriate.
(a) Select and prepare in-use engines representing the engine family we identify for verification testing under this section as follows: (1) You may recruit candidate engines any time before testing. This may involve creating a pool of candidate engines and vehicles in coordination with vehicle manufacturers and vehicle purchasers to ensure availability and to confirm a history of proper maintenance. You may meet the testing requirements of this section by repeating tests on a given engine as it ages, or you may test different engines over the course of verification testing; however, you may not choose whether to repeat tests on a given engine at a later stage based on its measured emission levels. We generally require that you describe your plan for selecting engines in advance and justify any departures from that plan.(2) Selected vehicles must come from independent sources, unless we approve your request to select vehicles that you own or manage. In your request, you must describe how you will ensure that the vehicle operator will drive in a way that represents normal in-use operation for the engine family.(3) Select vehicles with installed engines from the same engine family and with the same power rating as the emission-data engine used to determine the deterioration factors. However, if the test engine does not have the specified power rating, you may ask for our approval to either test in the as-received condition or modify engines in selected vehicles by reflashing the ECM or replacing parts to change the engines to be in a different certified configuration for proper testing.(4) Selected engines must meet the screening criteria described in § 1036.410(b)(2) through (4) . Selected engines must also have their original aftertreatment components and be in a certified configuration. You may ask us to approve replacing a critical emission-related component with an equivalent part that has undergone a comparable degree of aging.(5) We may direct you to preferentially select certain types of vehicles, vehicles from certain model years. or vehicles within some range of service accumulation. We will not direct you to select vehicles that are 10 or more years old, or vehicles with an odometer reading exceeding 85 percent of the engine's useful life. We will specify a time frame for completing required testing.(b) Perform verification testing with one of the following procedures, or with an alternative procedure that you demonstrate to be equally effective: (1)Engine dynamometer testing. Measure emissions from engines equipped with in-use aftertreatment systems on an engine dynamometer as follows: (i) Test the aftertreatment system from at least two engines using the procedures specified in subpart F of this part and 40 CFR part 1065 . Install the aftertreatment system from the selected in-use vehicle, including all associated wiring, sensors, and related hardware and software, on one of the following partially complete engines: (A) The in-use engine from the same vehicle.(B) The emission-data engine used to determine the deterioration factors.(C) A different emission-data engine from the same engine family that has been stablized as described in 40 CFR 1065.405(c) .(ii) Perform testing on all certification duty cycles with brake-specific emission standards (g/hp·hr) to determine whether the engine meets all the duty-cycle emission standards, including any compliance allowance, for criteria pollutants. Apply infrequent regeneration adjustment factors as included in your application for certification or develop new factors if we request it.(iii) Evaluate verification testing for each pollutant independently. You pass the verification test if at least 70 percent of tested engines meet standards for each pollutant over all duty cycles. You fail the verification test if fewer than 70 percent of engines meet standards for a given pollutant over all duty cycles.(2)PEMS testing. Measure emissions using PEMS with in-use engines that remain installed in selected vehicles as follows:(i) Test at least five engines using the procedures specified in § 1036.555 and 40 CFR part 1065, subpart J.(ii) Measure emissions of NOX, HC, and CO as the test vehicle's normal operator drives over a regular shift-day to determine whether the engine meets all the off-cycle emission standards that applied for the engine's original certification. Apply infrequent regeneration adjustment factors as included in your application for certification. For Spark-ignition HDE, calculate off-cycle emission standards for purposes of this subpart by multiplying the FTP duty-cycle standards in § 1036.104(a) by 1.5 and rounding to the same number of decimal places.(iii) Evaluate verification testing for each pollutant independently. You pass the verification test if at least 70 percent of tested engines meet the off-cycle standards including any compliance allowance and accuracy margin, for each pollutant. You fail the verification test if fewer than 70 percent of tested engines do not meet standards for a given pollutant.(iv) You may reverse a fail determination under paragraph (b)(2)(iii) of this section by restarting and successfully completing the verification test for that year using the procedures specified in paragraph (b)(1) of this section. If you do this, you must use the verification testing procedures specified in paragraph (b)(1) of this section for all remaining verification testing for the engine family.(c) You may stop testing under the verification test program and concede a fail result before you meet all the testing requirements of this section.(d) Prepare a report to describe your verification testing each year. Include at least the following information: (1) Identify whether you tested using the procedures specified in paragraph (b)(1) or (2) of this section.(2) Describe how the test results support a pass or fail decision for the verification test. For in-field measurements, include continuous 1 Hz data collected over the shift-day and binned emission values determined under § 1036.530 .(3) If your testing included invalid test results, describe the reasons for invalidating the data. Give us the invalid test results if we ask for them.(4) Describe the types of vehicles selected for testing. If you determined that any selected vehicles with enough mileage accumulation were not suitable for testing, describe why you chose not to test them.(5) For each tested engine, identify the vehicle's VIN, the engine's serial number, the engine's power rating, and the odometer reading and the engine's lifetime operating hours at the start of testing (or engine removal).(6) State that the tested engines have been properly maintained and used and describe any noteworthy aspects of each vehicle's maintenance history. Describe the steps you took to prepare the engines for testing.(7) For testing with engines that remain installed in vehicles, identify the date and location of testing. Also describe the ambient conditions and the driving route over the course of the shift-day.(e) Send electronic reports to the Designated Compliance Officer using an approved information format. If you want to use a different format, send us a written request with justification.(1) You may send us reports as you complete testing for an engine instead of waiting until you complete testing for all engines.(2) We may ask you to send us less information in your reports than we specify in this section.(3) We may require you to send us more information to evaluate whether your engine family meets the requirements of this part.(4) Once you send us information under this section, you need not send that information again in later reports.(5) We will review your test report to evaluate the results of the verification testing at each stage. We will notify you if we disagree with your conclusions, if we need additional information, or if you need to revise your testing plan for future testing.