LUCKY DAVE

I took my '86 in for a smog inspection yesterday, the tech looked under the hood before signing me up and told me it failed visual due to an adjustable fuel pressure regulator. In addition he told me that beginning in 2015 aftermarket exhaust is an automatic fail if it's different diameter than stock. In fact, anything non stock is an automatic fail, even a non stock air cleaner element! If stock parts are NLA too bad, buy a Pious.
Good thing he doesn't know the Rogue tuning MAP sensor and Lindsey dual port WG don't belong there, and can't see the turbo.
Just to make it a perfect day, when I got home I found a smog notice for my '89 track car (that I got smogged a year ago, and is now illegal in 13 ways) in the mail box ....$hit!

V2Rocket

Technically, any non-factory-stock or direct-exact-factory-replacement part related in any way to emissions that doesn't have a CARB E.O. number is illegal.

So you have to undo all your engine mods every time you're up for smog and put it all back to stock, at the very least.

alxdgr8

Yet another reason I would never take a job there. Best of luck! I know a few people that get by there with very non-stock cars, but it's only because they know someone.

gruhsy

You can register it here in Alberta no smog here and no CAT required.

Player0

I'll leak some more oil and gas out of my tail pipe to make it up for you. And out of my crank case for good measure.

odb812

Last year you did not have to have stock or CARB cert for anything after the catalytic converter. Does the exhaust beyond the cat count as parts related in any way to emissions? Either way the cat on my autocross car is not on the CARB list and is welded to the rest of the exhaust, so I have to change it regardless.

Techno Duck

Recently moved to San Diego; deciding what to do with my LS swapped 951 right now .

Option 1 is trailer only to the track which adds a whole another dimension of cost

Option 2 is sell the car... as much as it pains me to do this i'd love to get a new money pit

Option 3 is register the car in Nevada, but the area i would register it in does an emissions check also and with its current cam it wont pass the 2-speed idle check.

Option 4 is just put it into storage and see where i end up in a few years

Option 5 is to make the swap smog legal which is possible and has been done. But honestly i dont have it in me to do it over again..and the CARB approved engine i would need is around $8k!

V2Rocket

I dont think you need to fit an e-rod to make it legal, you just have to get it smogged as if it were a Camaro or whatever your engine came from.

IIRC the tricky part about that in a 944 body is the conversion headers and the air filter configuration...

pormgb

My 944 with an LS6 and aftermarket cam, is smog legal.

Although I have a LS6, the motor emulates a 2002 Camaro.

The motor uses all stock Camaro parts except the air filter that is a K+N FPIK CARB approved.

The conversion wasn't that difficult, my car initially failed due to some non stock parts (Coil packs, PCV system, Wide Band O2s), on the second trip it passed with flying colors.

The referee did state there were some new laws coming for 2015, he mentioned that any aftermarket PCM software will be illegal. For my conversion, the referee didn't care about the exhaust system behind the cats, he actually didn't focus much on the cats but focused on the O2 sensors
.

LUCKY DAVE

I thought about transferring the car's title to my brother in rural Utah to avoid smog issues.
Unfortunately, I don't have a brother.

goatfarmerdave

I feel sorry for you guys.On one hand I am super jealous,no snow,killer women,beautiful canyons and oceans,etc etc etc but up here in Canada I don't even need smog testing because of the age of the car.Almost every old car up here runs with no cat.But I will give all that up for no more snow and some of your women!!!!

Kris H

Those laws suck indeed.. Can someone explain to me why do they pretend it's an air-cleaning crusade, yet don't allow to modify your car so that it pollutes less than stock? Down here in europe when pollution is concerned, you may have whatever mods you want cause the annual inspections measure the exhaust gasses structure and the condition of the "hardware", they don't care what you have installed cause as long as all the chemical data is within norm, you're free to go.. (ofc they also check a lot more than that, but it's smog we're talking here)

What's the logic behind all that Cali nonsense? Lobbying dealerships? Is it only to get rid of the older cars from the streets and force people to buy newer ones?

Techno Duck

The issue with my swap is it was built with never having to go through emissions in mind. Ive done alot of reading on what it would take to make legal but with the way the car is currently setup it would require alot of work. I just dont have the drive in me to take on another project like that with this car. For the work involved, i think the CARB approved E-Rod engine is actually the easier route to take.

While i do dislike the laws regarding car modifications in CA it wont stop me from enjoying the other things living in this region has to offer.

docwyte

Your car will pass smog with its current cam. Mine does here in Colorado and we have the rolling dyno test. In fact it fast passed just a few weeks ago, was literally on the dyno for 1 minute. I've gotten my car inspected here, it gets tested as a 2002 Camaro SS now.

That doesn't get around the fact that you'd have to swap over the exhaust manifolds and some other things. Plus be pretty hosed if Cali does in fact disallow different PCM programming.

V2Rocket

Another thing is that cars newer than 1999 or 2000 (forget which, but this includes 944s with 1999+ swap engines) are generally "smogged" by plugging into the OBD-II port and checking for codes. They are trying to avoid putting those cars on the rollers to save time and make "smog" more accessible to shops (so they don't need to buy a dyno)

They look for all the OBD ready-checks and test-cycles, look for cleared codes/blank memory, and look for aftermarket PCM meddling.

So once you get your Referee exemption you are good to go for the most part as long as your setup doesn't throw any codes and doesn't have detectable aftermarket software.