Smog do's and dont's
- Thread starter 86 GN DDR
- Start date
There is a lot of variability in the techs out there, so somethings that might pass on visually another will fail. These cars can pass the sniffer with flying colors if tuned right. I nearly passed with a gutted cat. A couple of other people have put fresh cats on and passed with ease, seems to be a recurring theme.
Gunmetal87
Member
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2012
Was curious too. Will a 3" downpipe with cat pass visual inspection and test?
Depends on your tech. If you don't have anyone in your area that can point you to some friendly shops, I'd just start going from one to another and find ones that will do a quicky visual without going through the formal process and charging you. The shop I went to wanted the stock non-adj fpr put back on, which I had fortunately, and strongly suggested the stock injectors which I also had. I did have to get a new smog chip for the stock combo as I did not have the factory chip anymore.
By law, you are supposed to have a 3-way cat (NOx reduction), and yet, I bet I could have easily passed with a 2 way cat (no NOx reduction). I don't think you can tell from the outside which is which.
Do not volunteer any information you don't have to, just answer the questions they ask. Very unlikely they will know much about these engines - I had what I thought was a fairly knowledgeable guy, and yet he asked, "where's the air pump?" I do point out the basics (egr, pcv, evap) - if you let them spend too much time snooping around to figure out stuff on their own the more likely they are to ask about stuff you don't want to talk about
By law, you are supposed to have a 3-way cat (NOx reduction), and yet, I bet I could have easily passed with a 2 way cat (no NOx reduction). I don't think you can tell from the outside which is which.
Do not volunteer any information you don't have to, just answer the questions they ask. Very unlikely they will know much about these engines - I had what I thought was a fairly knowledgeable guy, and yet he asked, "where's the air pump?" I do point out the basics (egr, pcv, evap) - if you let them spend too much time snooping around to figure out stuff on their own the more likely they are to ask about stuff you don't want to talk about
Tori
Active Member
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2013
It's not about them being "idiots" and it's not just about "blowing clean" Like it or not, the state has rules, you know this, and you know you have to follow them. The rules are there for a reason, and it certainly isn't worth the $25,000 fine the smog station, and the fine the smog tech will get, not to mention the shop and tech loosing their smog license just so you can have a car that is even more fun to drive. Good for you that your car blows clean, but if CA didn't have these laws, i'd put money on your car running filthy rich and no where near as good as it does.
This is a great post for us California guys. I want to change my down-pipe as well as some other slight mods but I am afraid because of the visual issue. Unless it is polished I doubt a upgraded down-pipe is going to stand out much but I guess it depends on the tech.
I'm thinking about going with non polished stainless headers and downpipe to a high-flow cat. I want to add a little bit beefier turbo as well but retain a mostly stock appearance under the hood. I suppose its possible like you say with the right tech. My old 87 used to pass anywhere and it had all of what I just mentioned including cold air intake. But this was 10 years ago, I'm not sure if the laws have gotten stricter since.
