vanster

My '81 has a smog pump and my '80 did not. I believe the PO had removed it. The '80 past CA smog every time for 10 or so years. So what's the deal?

j.kenzie@sbcglobal.net

Visual inspection? They must have a list of original smog equipment by year. They look at a picture and check boxes. Different year, different boxes?
Good luck,
Dave

Speedtoys

Van:

Ask greg that question, watch his reaction.


You've gotten lucky so far, every year you will get less so without a legislation change.

SteveG

^^. Many threads here on this. I think it is more about passing inspection and whether you ever sell the car in CA than other factors. If you sell it to another state does it have to have inspection in CA?

GregBBRD

Your smog inspection station isn't visually checking very close and your '80 has a good enough cat to clean things enough to be able to.pass without air injection.
​​​​​

hacker-pschorr

My 80 came with the pump delete pulley, two owner car originally delivered to California and the second owner never removed it. She bought the car in 83.
I always thought that was odd.

Air pump is only needed when the CATS are cold, so passing smog without one should be easy as long as the engine is fully warmed up & the CAT is functioning.

vanster

I think I will keep the pump. Just curious

Speedtoys

It does not. But the smart money is hoarding smog pumps.

But to sell it in CA the risk is the seller could find themselves in court for selling a non compliant car and be on the hook for the costs to make it so.

The buyer is only responsible for re-inspection during his ownership.

Speedtoys

Which, is dumb luck playing out. Again, im not pro CARB, but I feel it's wise to know your opponent.

The sniff test is supposed to be the -last- part of an inspection, as CARB enforcement continues, more will start doing it right and only sniff after everything else has been reviewed.

But failing on equipment wont stop a sniff test, they still want to log the emissions as a data point even if there is an early failure.

dr bob

Casual thought --

If you have the factory cat installed in Cali, there's no reason not to run the pump and keep the plumbing intact. If you have an approved aftermarket cat in Cali, does it need the air pump?

It seems to me that some early years had AIR, the Air Injection Reaction setup that pumps air to the exhaust ports to finish oxidizing unburned fuel that makes it past the exhaust valves. Again, there's no downside to leaving the system intact.


Cali smog is a mess for many of the cars, as the "technicians" these days really don't have a clue about what stuff looks like. They look at the state's list of things that are supposed to be there, and they get to set a red flag in the state's database if they find a car without the required bits. Once a car gets that flag set, it's doomed to more detailed inspection for every owner for the rest of its Cali life. Save yourself that forever headache by having the pump there and a belt attached for inspection.

Speedtoys

There is no condition where you would not require all of the required HW installed and working on the car.

vanster

When I bought my '80, 12 years ago, I took it to get it smogged and it did not pass. It was very very close. The smog boys in CA only open the hood, they never look under the car or at least I have not found one that does and I'm in Berkeley.
I put the car on a lift and to my surprise...no cat. I put a $300 cat on it and it easily passed and it had MSDS headers and no pump. In my 10 years of ownership ( 5 smog checks) it passed every time. It went to PA when I sold it.

In todays world and the age of the people doing the smog check I doubt very much if they know what they are looking at. Maybe they are really automotive journalist...I had to toss that in as my red car is still at GB"s getting a new clutch fitted.

Speedtoys

hahah..good one.

But as more shops get the special visit and even pass a clean car but NOT doing the procedure right, this will soon, end as well.

Any moron can do a smog check, there's like a 6" thick book there to guide said moron thru it. The fines can kill a business fairly quick.

Katie has some stories..her ROP lab at Santa Cruz High, was a BAR "re-training" facility for busted techs.

The Forgotten On

My techs that I use are very particular and know what to look for (correct factory cat, smog pump, etc.) but will let things like colored vacuum lines slide.

They also cannot pressurize the tank due to the weird fill cap the 928 has. So the car is effectively exempt from that. I always seem to get sent to star stations for both of my 928s though...

I would hold on to the smog pump just to have it but you can leave it disconnected and you won't hurt anything.

Speedtoys

Unless you use the pump delete pulley.

Then you are,