Eyal 951

Well, i need to take the car to a smog only station, not just any place. does this mean I'm ****ed, and have to put most anything that looks aftermarket back to stock? My accuboost? pull out the wideband? what kind of crap (aside from getting the cat back in) should i do to prepare to pass.
~Eyal

Serge944

Your car might not pass with the aftermarket ECU.

Porsche-O-Phile

Just so you know - technically the smog place can fail you on the visual inspection for ANYTHING aftermarket upstream of the cat that doesn't have a CA Air Resources Board approval number (CARB #). Since the shop DOES have something to lose by deliberately approving a car that doesn't meet these standards (civil penalties and loss of license) the simple rule is don't give 'em an easy one. Granted they probably don't see a lot of 944s, but I'd try to just stand back and look for anything that pops out or is glaringly obvious as aftermarket. An MBC is a dead giveaway; I'd lose it just for the test unless you think you can kinda' hide it somewhere.

A lot of the visual test is a bit subjective and there are a lot of factors:
- What kind of mood is the guy in that day?
- Are they being scrutinized by the state / have they been busted before?
- How obvious is it that the car is modded by looking at it?
- How familiar is he / she with these cars (if at all)?

I'd avoid giving 'em an "easy one". Obviously take it reasonably seriously and get the cat and other things on and make it look like you "play by the rules". Good luck. If you need a hand with anything, lemmee know.


The question is: how much will the place identify as "aftermarket" and how much do they feel like busting your butt that day.

KuHL 951

I've been going to a Test Only for years now. I passed the 951 with open element intake amonth ago, Welt chips, partial vac delete, faulty FPR and DV. Make sure he runs a big fan, it's standard in most shops for cars with intercoolers. The next week I passed the BMW with open element intake and fumes stinking up his shop. I think some shops are a bit stricter than others. Once he puts it on the rollers it's just a matter of how well the car is tuned. It's a 15 and 25 mph pull; if you are making boost or your chips are providing some abnormal fuel mapping you will fail. I don't think most aftermarket chips even come into play at that speed or rpm so give it a try. A good shop will try to keep it in the green on the screen as best they can, soon as it hits that red bar it will shut down. If your car is running rich at idle get the cat hot first on a spirited freeway run, it will help. If the car sits outside the shop for too long the cat can cool down and not be as efficient. Personally I prefer the test only places to the Smog N' Robs that always seem to find some nitpicking problem they can fix for a 'modest' fee. They will spot the AccuBoost though, do you have a AA banjo bolt you can throw on there for the test as long as you keep your foot out of it until after the test? they look OEM. He won't know a wideband from a marching band so I'd leave it on. You aren't running an MAF or MAP are you?...good luck if you are, they aren't stupid.

Danno

Make sure you have them run a "pre-test" only first!!! Make sure they write it up that way and the tech doing the test understands it's a "pre-test". Also make sure your O2-sensor is hooked up so that it can do automatic corrections to pull your air-fuel into the best range.

FWIW, I spent 6-months correcting for the mistake the tech did on my car. I made sure to ask for the pre-test and the guy somehow didn't see that and entered it into the computer as a normal test and ran it and logged everything into the State's computer. I had just returned from a weekend at Willow Springs and had the APE chips in there along with my MAF-4 kit. The ARC2 was set up on the rich side as well and the resulting air-fuel ratio was outside of the range that the O2-sensor can correct. So... got HC emissions well over double the legal limit and was flagged as a gross-poluter... Dammn..!

So I took the car home, threw in the stock chips, and turned down the ARC2 so that the O2-sensor was doing proper dithering across 14.7:1, everything looked find and I should pass no problem. Took it back within 2 days because offered a free re-test within 2 weeks. The manager comes out, takes a look at the car and says "no way" to the big exposed K&N filter. He wouldn't even put it on the sniffer or anything, even though I know for sure the emissions would pass. I tried coming back a couple other times to hopefully get it on when the manager was away. But apparently he had told everyone else about me and that I couldn't pass the visual with the K&N.

Then I tried to be sneaky and try a differnet smog station. Took it somewhere else and when they entered my plates into the computer, it came up as "gross poluter" and they said they couldn't legally test me. I could only be tested by the original smog station that failed me. But there was no way I was going to be able to rip out the MAF and re-install the stock system since I had already given it all away.

Finally, the 1st station that failed me said that I could go to an official State of CA referee station, kinda like pulling rank. So I made an appointment with the only station in the area, 2-hours away up north in San Luis Obispo. Made it up there and they pulled out the book and went through every single point in the book!. They even pulled out dental mirrors and inspected all 360-degrees around the welds on my cat to make sure it was the factory job and that I didn't weld in a straight-pipe inside.

They trace every single frickin' hose in the engine compartment and even jacked up the car to pull off the wheel and fender-liner to ensure that my evaporative canister was still installed and hooked up. Luckily, the MAF kit I had was compliant with the three connections they verified, the crankcase ventilation hose was installed, the evaporative canister vent was hooked up, and the compressor bypass-valve was routed back into the turbo...

Lucky thing with the 951's configuration was that, a TAC-thermostatic air-cleaner is NOT a requirement. Most cars hook up the crankcase vent to the airbox for positive crankcase ventilation. They REQUIRED a sealed airbox in order to suck blow-by fumes out of the crankcase. In the 951's configuration however, the crankcase was vented to the J-boot in front of the turbo. So aftermarket MAFs are legal since their configuration was the same as stock. The sealed airbox was not a part of the PCV system, so it can be ditched!!! My K&N filter was LEGAL!!! At least by the letter of the law in the checklist, but not in spirit since ANY modification to the car's intake and computers was illegal, but they had no idea what a stock 951 should look like anyway, they just verified all the hoses were hooked up and went to the right spots.

Next was the emissions test. I saw that the stock chips combined with the big MAF wasn't spot-on. I managed to sneak into the passenger seat and open up glove-box, which had my hidden ARC2 in there. Both the techs had their backs turned to me watching the computer monitor as they ran their test. So I fiddled with the ARC2's ***** while watching the screen! Had to turn up idle fuel a bit because my HC was as too low which caused teh NOx to be high. Then I fumbled around with paperwork mumbling somethign about getting my registration when one of the guys came over to clamp a stick of some sort onto my steering wheel that pushed on the throttle to hold the car at 2500rpm. Then he went back to watching the monitor and I could see that my HC was now too high, so I clicked down the **** on the ARC2 by a couple clicks. Finally, it passed!!!

What a nightmare!!! Make sure you get a "pre-test" first, and make sure they don't log the run into the computer as a real test!!!

PCA 944

As you know, It all depends on where you take it. If they really followed the rules, you may very well fail the test on the visual, but most places really don't pay that much attention.

When I bought my car last year, I had my car smogged at a place off Canoga and Sherman Oaks. I can give you more information about the place if your interested. To say the least, they barely glanced at the car and just put the car on rollers with minimal equipment.

Eyal 951

was it a "Test Only" place? If so, gimme the info! Just so you guys know, this is what they'll be looking at. Lots of flashy colors and things.
~Eyal

24FPS

nice eyal. still looks stock imho.

Porsche-O-Phile

To your credit it does look stock. However, if they check vaccum line routing, you're dead. If they see your boost enhancer, you're dead and if they see the boost controller you're dead. I'm not sure they can fail you for non-DOT stainless brake lines, but they probably can if they want to be a-holes about it.

KuHL 951

Ditto on the pre-test Danno suggests. Your car looks stock but they will see that Accuboost for sure. Trust me they don't know the vacuum routing, they ususally just look for disconnected/plugged hoses. You do not want to go to a State referee shop from a failed dyno test, that is the worst experience you can have. I'm keeping my vac lines all black, the color bling just makes them look closer.

SamGrant951

man you guys have it bad, Im so glad I dont have to deal with that sh*t!

Eyal 951

jeff, my stainless lines ARE dot, according to Paragon.i'll try and make freinds with the tester, always harde to be an a hole to a guy that you like.
~Eyal

L8 APEKS

Test-Only simply means they cannot perform labor to repair emissions problems. It's no more strict/harsh than any other smog station.

They also will not give you a "sniff check." You'll more than likely have to go to a mechanic with a gas analyzer for that. However, the test-only I went to a couple months ago did shut it down early when he saw that I was going to fail before the test completed, and tried it 2 more times before running the full test that showed a fail. I've still yet to go back to re-test, I just got my new cat installed a couple weeks ago and I've had no time!

Anyway...make sure your car is completely warmed up (ie, exhaust is hot)...but you also want to make sure your coolant is...well...cool. If your water temp is running high, chances are your combustion chamber temps are up too, and you'll fail NOX. Likewise, if the cat is not warmed up, you'll fail as well. Other than that, as long as your O2 and ignition are healthy...you should be good to go!

Mongo

Eyal, most smog places haven't seen a 944 let alone a 951 routinely throughout the business. From visual inspection you should pass. However, your a/f modifications may render your car a gross polluter on the dyno. Is there a way to reinstall the factory DME or return the car to stock boost without causing major problems?

Porsche-O-Phile

Good deal - I thought you'd gotten the "track only" ones. Heck if they REALLY wanted to be d*ckheads about it they could probably fail me for the Hella H4 headlamps, since they're Euro-E spec, not DOT spec. Your plan to go in and try to be friendly to 'em is a good one. Preferably find a place that has a guy that's like "hey, cool car" and just talk it up with them. . . Might take some doing but it'll probably be worth it.

FWIW I have a plan for the WCW crew to avoid having to deal with this crap in the future. . . I'll PM it to you.