How do I deal with California smog laws ?

The "sensors" are usually people on the road ratting you out. The tree huggers are uptight as it is with our "Gas/ oil" burning cars but if they see them smokin real bad you can be sure they keep the phone number close at hand. Other than that anything (I think its pre-75 now) you can do what you want with.

 

When searching to get my 33 chevy licensed in CA, went into internet and copied the vehicle code, visited the BAR site and CHP site read all and than went to a smog place for more info. Here in short is what I found out. The motor will smog to the year of motor they use the engine stamp to verify year, in my case I have a 1958 392 Hemi, all it had was a breather tube extending to the proximitty of ground, and there are no smog specifications for that year, there are no tests. Hence the smog guy signs paper and go to DMV and done deal

 

I disagree, any law can be undone tjm73, thats why the smog law stopped rolling, or even started rolling in the first place.
when I started working on cars 10 years ago, the cut off was 1965. My dads 66 was all hopped up and he couldn't register it because none of the smog stuff fit/worked anymore. (btw his car gets 35mpg with 250hp now)
I may have missed your point, its not the engine that has to be pre-emission, it's the body that has to be pre-emission. you can put a 2000 engine in a 1980 and still smog it as long as the 1980 body had something similar like (350 v8), and the 2000 engine produces less co2. Just to reiterate what i said earlier.

 

dirty hands I would venture to guess that your dads car was out of the system when he went into to have it registered, and it fell into the bring it back to life whereas you had to get it inspected and beings that it was a hopped up 66 not stock it failed the test. remember on the dmv renewal where it says declare non-op always check that when you take a car off the street so as not to take it out of the system. It is my belief the car smogs to the year of motor, when applying for specialty car or when bringing one back to life

 

Some agency of the CA has used remote sniffer sensors in the past, or at least SO THEY SAID a few years back. If there are still any in use (I don't know if there are), and if your vehicle makes them go off, then your exemption from periodic inspections will not mean a thing. "Gross polluter" vehicles are NOT exempt from being removed from the public roads, no matter how old they are. The older vehiclers are ONLY exempt from a periodic inspection, NOT exempt from "gross polluter" penalties, if your vehicle winds up falling in that category.

Now, I do not know if these remote sensors are still in use, or even if they ever were-- but this is what CA indicated a few years back--- they said that sensors WERE IN OPERATION at undiclosed locations (probably heavily-travelled freeway sections). Maybe it's all BS, but if it isn't and there really are sensors out there like they once said, then a gross-polluting older vehicle could will have big problems if a remote sensor ever picked them up.

 

but thats just an engine build. big deal.

 

in Ca, in old cars you dont even need seat belts. I see alot of model a and T guys with one single tailight. I pretty sure you do need turn signals though. I have heard from a few different people never to go to DMV to have your old car inspected. they said just Hire a 3rd party ***le company, its worth a couple hundered bucks. I bought my 50 from a mechanic who had a lien on it. I took it to DMV and i had to have like 2 supervisors come out and inspect it. The vin# is only in one place on the a-pillar. They wouldn't believe me and kept looking for it in another place. Must have taken over an hour, when finally the main supervisor just ok'd it.

 

Not for everybody. Some folks have some pretty gnarly engines that put out a lot of emissions when fresh. Sure, this only applies to a few hotrodders, but the point is to be aware of the potential pitfalls.

 

The only pit fall I can see is to put poorly tuned engine in a post smog car, and that’s the builders fault, not the inspector, or law makers.

If your engine is rich or lean anywhere across the operating range it is not done being tuned and has not reach its maximum potential.

The only excuses I can think of are a two stroke and a Rotary engine and that’s because the design requires consumption of oil through the combustion chamber, which is harder to control than the consumption of gas.

If you want to know the geek speak of it read more on stoichiometry.


The Physics of a gasoline engine dictate that all gasoline engines regardless of Hp/torque/manufacturer/design/etc. have a maximum efficiency; it is measured by stoichiometric reaction of gasoline.
It is basically the measurement of how much fuel will (completely with out left over) combust within a given volume with a given amount of air.

Because carburetors can never be completely entirely accurate they will rob power across the board by being too lean sometimes and too rich sometimes throughout the operating range of the engine.

 

I would imagine that supercharged with mechanical constant-flow injection puts out quite a bit. That's the route I'm taking. I guess that would be my fault.