Hey all, just moved to the DFW area from Indiana a year ago. I haven't driven the car, or had it titled even, as it currently has no emissions equipment at all and I know I currently won't pass emissions. My original plan was to go back and reinstall all the emissions equipment (EGR, AIR, new cat, etc.), but I just talked to somebody who has a 91 Firebird, and he said that all I really need to do is add the cat again and I should pass. Can anyone verify this at all, that EGR and AIR won't cause me to fail? I'm planning on adding headers before I get it titles, so I need to know whether I can go with non-emissions style headers, or whether I should get the ones with the AIR fittings.

Thanks...

 

1993 so it will have to be run on the dyno. You can only have two not ready I believe, call Kwik Kar or something and ask to make sure. You can program out EGR and AIR and you'll be fine I think, I did. They probably won't do a visual, never did on my old car, but it will have to pass the sniffer so you'll probably need one.

 

Thanks for the reply, this is so much better than having to drop $1000 just to put worthless emissions crap back on...

 

Where in the D/FW area are you moving too?

 

I've actually been here for about a year already, living in Euless.

 

The deal is this. Any car 25 years and older do not have to take the sniffer test. Now most all places will do a under hood inspection. IF the exhaust doesnt look like they had air lines they may not know the difference. But it all comes down to how clean it is under the hood, ie the air pump brackets ect... Yes they may look under the car to see if you have a cat. But thats all they look for as far as that goes. And I would make sure the gas cap is good, it would suck to pass the smog but fail because the gas cap is bad. And as I can recall they will fail it if the check engine light in on. But like I said if the under hood is clean they may not notice.

 

Do you know if the 25 year thing is revolving, like each year that passes my car gets closer to not needing testing? Also, I'm going through a complete rebuild, planning on lots of dress up, as well as headers (with no steam pipes if it will pass).

 

No, the year your car hits 25 years old, thats it. no more sniffer. Then all they do is a break test, check the lights,wipers,horn ect...
That is all they do to my 85 Z28. And it cost a lot less. I think it was 25 dollars for mine last year. I may have gone up this year, I will ask my friend who does mine later today.
Here are a couple of links to help you find all the info about it.

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/vi/insp.../item_insp.asp

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/vi/misc/faq/insp_faq.htm

 

You wouldn't happen to know which chains of shops would be more likely skip the visual inspection would you? Not like specific locations, just franchises...

 

Well, thats kinda hard to say, it realy all depends on how busy they are, like at the end of and first of the month. The thing is, DPS sometimes sends in a undercover to check them out to make sure they are doing it right. But I have seen that kwik kar at times just gets them in and out. So you might try them. I need to add, that just because they are doing a visual doesnt mean they are looking at anything. Like I said if it doesnt look like it was ever there then they will blow right past it and not ever know the difference. The main thing will be the sniffer test.

 

Okay, thanks for the help again. Kwik Kar is where I took my other car and yeah, it was real quick (although OBD-II). My original plan was to just keep it title out of state; my dad, who lives in Michigan, is still technically on the title, so I was thinking I could et away with it, but from what I've seen/heard the local PD are REALLY strict about that. So bottom line, would you say it's worth the risk to go with Hooker LT's, or just go ahead with BBK shorties and make it "look" legal once a year?

 

Me, I would go with what you want to run. Like I said they may not know the difference. To many cars come with headers these days. And as for getting your car titled for texas, you had better do that. It has to registerd in texas to drive in texas. If you live here just get it done. The reason is, after a while they will recognize your car and will ticket you after a while and getting a insp sticker will just draw attention to you because there needs to be 2 stickers in the window.