I will move to live in California this February, and I have a modded 1995 Camaro M-6. Quick mods list-CC306, stage II heads, LT's, Borla, resonator, and no cat . So far I was getting by in Illinois very well since there is no emissions testing required if you register you car outside Chicago, like little towns of Champaign or Dekalb. I know people still mod their cars in California, and I was wondering how do they get by the strict state emission's laws. How much time a new comer to California is given before his first manditory emissions test? Is there any place I could register my car so no emissions testing would be required. I could put a couple cats on the car and stock cam before I leave if I really need to, but this is not something I would enjoy doing

Tomas

 

Tough call.......I'm from PA and I live in Irvine CA now and I bought my 97 Z in Newport Beach off some rich old fool. Anyway, it is vary hard out here b/c to get your car registered in CA you have to get a smog check which is the same as emissions but a little more strict. However, out here you tires and breaks could be falling off and they never check a thing and I know what to look for since 2 of my brothers r inspection mechanics. They do a complete visual for your proper devices and then put you on the computer..........suxx You can try to roll out to one of those fine mexican neighborhoods and slip someone a 20 but don't try it in Irvine b/c it dosen't work. With no cats you will most likely fail immediately. My car only has a Ram Air Hood, some Flow Masters, is getting an MSD over christmas but as for my other mods I haven't found a way around the system yet but I will. http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/667200
Got my car smoged when it was stock but i think it is only every 2 years unlike PA's annual inspection.

 

This might get a better response in the correct "Regional Enthusiast" forum.

 

The only thing I can see wrong with your car is the LT and no convertor. You will not pass visual inspection. smog testing is every two years unless your on the hit list for every year. If you want to keep the mod then leave the car reg. in your state.

 

He can't leave it registered there for too long though, because now they are hammering down on people who do that because it takes away from the state's revenue and being that we are having budget problems, they decided to be really strict about how long your car can remain registered outside of CA.

If any of your mods don't carry a CARB EO number, then they are illegal. How much they will actually inspect for those numbers differs at every smog station. Your LTs and no cats will definitely need to be fixed, and your cam may need to be too, depending on what it is doing for your emmissions. Also, there aren't any places I am aware of that you will be exempt from being checked - I lived in a small town of 3,500 and I still had to be checked every two years.

 

So even if I put two restrictive cats after my long tubes, I will still not pass the emissions test because I have Long tube headers? Also, do the emissions people look for air pump stuff, mine was gone long time ago.
I can see myself putting two cats in and putting stock cam in just for emissions, but changing LT's would be lots of work since I don't have stock Y-pipe anymore

 

Yes they visual check everything.

 

Basically you are probably screwed. If you had all emmissions stuff, cats,
and the best tune possible, you may pass. I have not heard of many 306s
passing CA smog. Chances are better in a 383.

The longtubes are a total blow it. I have not re-tested since my cam swap
and exhaust system mods, and only hope that I will pass when the time comes.
Because I don't have anything that looks out of place, I doubt it will be any
trouble passing, especially with the baby cam.

When I did my dyno tune a while back the tuner indicated that a 224/230
cam is about the biggest that can consistently pass smog. And FYI they test
it on a chassis dyno, hook up to the computer, and look at everything.

 

Bad news, was kind of expecting it though. I guess I will start looking for a stock Y pipe, good I still have stock exhaust manifolds. Does the visual inspection include ckecking for all air pump stuff? Maybe someone knows some . Kind of weird, I think that California has the most modded cars, and it also has the most stringent emissions testing; with no loopholes

 

I would MUCH rather switch the headers then cam any day. BTW, I have a full stock exhaust if you have no luck finding one. Parting out the 95 and afew things from my 94.

 

I wouldn't even come to Kalifornia. There are many states just as nice, with employment opportunities, that are way more 'car-mod' friendly.

 

Let's see, I drive my motorcycle 5 times more than my Camaro, and if it wasn't the su*king weather in Illinois, my camaro would be just grocery shopping car. California is one of the most fun states for motorcycles (HWY 1) Also, I fly airplanes, and California is perfect for it too. In addition, in two weeks I will have engineering masters from a very good school, and California has twice as many engineering jobs as any other state. Besides that, you can go skiing in California, and Las Vegas is close by. Also I had a job offer in Illinois from a very well known engineering company, but then I realized that I don’t really enjoy Illinois weather/terrain. California it is, just Camaro will need some adjustment, unless somebody will come up with some ideas

 

they don't care how clean your car runs in california, they just care about whether or not u have carb approved ****. long tube headers are illegal. its illegal to add, remove, or relocate a catalyic converter. so i think your best bet would be to get some stock manifolds and ypipe/cat off ebay and put them on for the smog test then swap them back. u only have to do it once every 2 years, no biggie. that cam and heads might make your car run a bit dirty, but really as long as it still runs smoothly and you have fairly new smog equipment/cats you should be ok. i'm pretty sure you get like 50 almost emissions free miles when you put new cats on, so i'd go straight from the exhuast place to the smog shop if you were gonna do that

 

I never want to leave california, i love it here

 

I will too pretty soon, not sure about my Camaro, she might have some troubles