I NEED TO KNOW HOW PEOPLE WITH OBDII CARS ARE GETTING THEIR CARS SMOGGED IN CA. I HAVE BEEN TOLD THERE ARE NO AFTER MARKET CATALYTIC CONVERTERS LEGAL IN CALI EVEN THOUGH I HAVE SUPPOSEDLY HAD A SET ON MY CAR FROM RANDOM TECHNOLOGY FOR THE PAST 2 YEARS. ONE WENT OUT AND I CANNOT FIND ANYONE TO CUT OUT THE BAD ONE AND INSERT THE NEW GOOD ONE. HAS ANYONE HAD TO DEAL WITH THIS OR KNOW WHERE I COULD CONTACT TO GET SOME HELP. RANDOM TECH SAYS EVERYONE IN CALI ARE AFRAID AND THEIR PRODUCTS WILL ALL PASS SMOG WHICH THEY DID 2 YEARS AGO, BUT NOW I HAVE BEEN TOLD THEY CHECK THE COMPUTER AND THEY ALSO ARE SUPPOSE TO CHECK FOR STOCK HEADERS AND CATS. ALL THE LOCAL SHOPS SAY THERE IS 10K FIND AND 90 DAYS IN THE SLAMMER.

 

Yes they do check on OBDII with a plug in test to see if your car has any code history. As for the cats you can change them with any brand on the market. What you can't do is relocate the cat to a different location, it has to be in the stock location. What shop told you that is full of it. Now if you got headers that dont have an EO# you will fail visual test.

Vinny

 

Where are you located at? I might be able to help with the cat situation, maybe the smog b.s.. This is the only thing that I don't look forward to when I get back there. That fine b.s. is just that unless the smog **** catch your azz. You have cats just a bad one. Also find out why that cat went bad, there is almost always a reason.

 

Most of what that shop told you was bs. I live in california too and yea the smog standards are crazy however I don't think its as awful as you think. This is what I would do if I were you. Since you have a "bad" cat I would just go ahead and gut the thing, make it into an offroad pipe. Go to www.cheapexhaust.com and buy yourself a set of good cats. Swap the good cats w/ your new offroad pipe before you have to get smogged and you're good to go. You'll need o2 sims for the oxygen sensors. They definatley do not check for stock headers and cats. Fuels is right, as long as you got the eo# you don't have a problem. To be honest I use a set of pacesetter headers in my camaro which are illegal in california. I just tell the smog guys that they are edelbrock's and give them the eo# for those and I haven't had a problem.

 

That sounds like a load of bull crap, the shop not wanting to cut the bad one out, and put a new one it. My cat was bad, and I just brought my car to the local muffler shop and they cut it out and put a new one on there without and questions. I guess you just have to find the right shops to do that for you, gotta ask around your town, most people who are into modding cars, know which shops are helpfull and which are not.

 

I agree with the previous post. If your cat is bad, under emission law they are suppose to replace it. After they replace it you will have to sign a sheet saying that the cat is replace because it was bad. The things they cannot do under that law is move them to a different spot, or replace a working cat. I know one way Midas check to see if the cat is clogged or not is by how much heat that cat is putting off. If a cat is clogged, it will put out a tremdous amount of heat. So the people who told you they don't want to move it because of emission was full of BS. ( unless you cats are working right. )

 

also, there will be a differnce in heat, ie before cat and after cat will be way different temp wise...

 

I have been talking to more people that I know and I am going to try to get the cat taken care of tomorrow. Two years ago when I had just got my exhaust system put in there were no problems. I am hoping that if I can get the new cat put in I will not have any more probs getting the car smogged. However I have just accumulated a bunch of go fast goodies for a 383 and now from what people have told me there is no possible way I will be able to ge the car smogged once I get the new motor built. To answer another post, I live in Martinez, California. If anyone local reads this and has some shops in mind that are reasonable and reputable I would really appreciate it. Thanks for your guys input, but hopefully I will have it all taken car of tomorrow!!

 

does ob2 still do sniffer also in CA? in georgia they just plug into dash, no sniffer... so you could possibly still do 383.. just with shortys with EO number...

edit: if this is the case and no sniffer you could just get emissons stuff edited out of pcm so no codes will ever pop up...

 

They still do both test on OBDII.

Vinny

 

My car is an OBD1, but I passed with flp long tubes, their dual cats (which adds an extra cat converter), and all the other stuff, including major modded fuel system. IT passed and ran very clean, in fact, cleaner than stock. The guy didn't say anything, he just ran it thru, a smog only station too.
The guy that did my exhaust told me it was an illegal setup, but he would still do the work. He just wanted me to know it was illegal.
Funny, when I drove to the exhaust shop with just headers and cat converters (no midpipe or muffler), a cop car came up next to me at a stoplight. They just looked at my car and drove by. No response. From my experience, most cops don't care what you have under your hood, unless you are street racing, and that is a hole different ball game nowadays. You could lose your car and go to jail. Oh, the good ol days are gone.

Ed

 

Well today was the big day and I was able to get it to pass. However I will just let the word out now. The emissions in Cali are going to be crazy in the next year. The cars are now going to be hooked up to a dynometer. The average cost will be about 100 dollars and the computer will be doing all the work. These computers are going to be hooked up to a regional area (such as Sacramento, like mine was today) and there will be cameras installed so smog patrol can check to see what car is actually being smogged. Anything and everything will be fair game. If you have bigger injectors, any kind of computer mods that are extraordinary or even dumb **** such as having a gas cap that does not securely keep the gas fumes in the tank, you will fail. Now I am happy but I am sure there are going to be plenty of folks in the near future that are not. So just a cautionary notice to all the fellow f-body and vette owners, if you want to mod your motors make sure you have an illegal shop to pass you, because life is going to become alot tougher

 

Congrats on passing, and thanks for the info. That will suck, I heard about some evil sh*t coming down the pipe line. I wonder if they will be that strict on mods that come with their own CARB EO numbers.

 

I wouldn't worry about the 383 unless you go overboard. You should be fine as long as you don't have codes and the sniffer says that you're fine. Just go with a cam that's not to crazy and don't go overboard on the heads. This is the only thing making me wish that I wasn't going back. Maybe I'll just buy an old car instead.

 

I disagree with you, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. The state is broke right now and has the worst, yes the worst credit rating in the whole country. Stuff like this is why we are broke. Those ignorant congressmen are passing new laws everyday which are not realistic nor enforceable. It would be virtually impossible to keep track of 12 million plus automobiles receiving smog tests. The system is already taxed and over its head as it is now.
The existing system utilizes a dyno and all the data is submitted to Sacramento already. I know this because my first try this year at the smog test resulted in a gross polluter and a letter from the state. This is no big deal as long as you can fix or tweak your car to pass.

Ed