Does anyone know what are the normal readings allowed for a '95 TA? in California....

I need to find a way to pass and I think the car's so far away from what's allowed this is going to be interesting.

 

Going off your sig, if you have no EGR and no cats, you WILL fail.

 

yes, I know there's no chance it passes as it is.

I'm looking at buying a set of stock manifolds + cat in order to give it a try, but I'm curious about how far away I could be from the goal. The cam's a grind similar to the cc306; the heads are simply stock ported heads, so nothing major there.

I heard that there are some areas in CA where the test is not needed (in some very rural areas). I do not know if this is true or not, but I need to investigate it; can always rent a mailbox there to get an address.

I also considered registering it in NV as if you fail and prove you tried to fix the car, then fail again it seems like you can get an exemption. But this is from internet reading, so I need to learn more.

When I used to live in HI, I passed because I was friend with one of the inspector's friends and the car was still a 350 with a cc305; it's more complicated now... I managed to spend two years bouncing from one temp registration to another, but I can not keep it going anymore.

 

I'm in CA, here's a link to a thread I posted a week or two age when I was able to pass with an "iffy" combo
https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=634651

Is your car a single cat (before you removed it, that is)? All '95 LT1s were dual-cats here in CA. I passed well within limits for both HC, and NOX. Without the cat and your EGR, you're probably screwed. The cam might be close, how does it compare with the specs on mine listed in the thread? You could always just do a "pre-test" to see how bad it is, and go from there. Would probably only cost $40-$50, and you'll at least get an idea what you're facing.

 

I've longer duration / less lift on the cam, I unfortunately do not recall the LSA.
Also the 'tuning' ended up being highway runs recorded on the laptop followed by empirical LT1 edit tweaks, so it may not be the best. As all this stuff is still in storage, I can not even do an edit now.

My car was a single cat; I am thinking about buying stock manifolds + a cat just to pass; next to my place we have an exhaust shop next to the smog station, so I could maybe have them do the swap, pass the test with no muffler, just a cat and swap everything back. But I'd need to make sure I've everything lined up otherwise it's going to be a major waste of time and money.

Is there a way to get cats after the headers to work somehow? I know that would be far back, but maybe if I use header wrap all the way on the tubing it could keep the gas hot enough. I also keep hearing about using ethanol, but I haven't heard anyone confirming it really works.

 

A single cat is going to be too far back to light off I believe. You could go with a couple of cats just after the headers, but (1) it's expensive, and (2) it's still not legal, since you cannot relocate the cats from the stock location. I passed even with relocated cats, it seems most smog shops don't know about the restriction on relocating the cats, but you just never know. I would say going with a stock-type setup just to pass would probably be the best route. I've heard of people passing in CA with the 305 cam, it's not too wild. It has (I think) 112 lobe centers, the overlap isn't that bad with it

 

I think I'll try first the educate myself about the methanol option to see if it's viable and go for a pre-test to see what's going on

going stock might be the way to go but it's going to be a major pain. Also I don't have the air pump anymore, no EGR, etc so I am not sure if this is going to cause a problem.

 

After you get the EGR/headers/cat reinstalled, make an appointment at a test-only center for a pre-inspection. i.e., don't let them hook it up to the DOT computer.

They can give you an idea of whether it will pass as is, and recommend what you need to do to get it to pass if not.

Since they aren't allowed to work on the car, they are honest, and all of the test-only techs I dealt with in CA were really sharp, unlike the mechanics working at test-and-repair smog places. Many of the test-and-repair smog places in CA will really try to gouge you for repairs.

I'm pretty sure people have passed in CA with CC306, but you'll need a good tune.

Oh, and you aren't going to get around it by getting a mailbox somewhere else...

 

well, my fallback plan is to ship the car back to HI, I still have an address and my license is from there too, register it and ship it back; so the remote address works fine but it would end up costing about $1800 to ship the car back and forth.

I'm going to look at the options starting by the cheapest ones.

I've also an address in NV as I have a business there, this is why I was considering registering there, failing emissions, going for 'repairs', failing again and getting the waiver, but I think having no cat will mess up this plan.

Does anyone have experience with methanol?

 

well with no AIR, EGR or cats you would fail the visual. also if the car was original with 1 cat then all it would need is 1 cat. it will be tested as a federal car.

 

do some stations close the eyes for the visual as long as numbers are good?

 

Some are stricter than others. Some don't care, others don't really know what to look for. Hell, sometimes you can pay them a little extra to look the other way . You just have to find the right station.

 

maybe that should be my first step

 

honestly before you start paying a ton of money to put it back to stock, ask around for shops that do look the other way.

 

sounds like the best plan I think.

On top of everything, I use the car so little that I don't even feel bad about my pollution footprint: I did less than 10k miles in the last 5 years.