Call your local Smog referee station and talk to one of those guys about it. There are many laws, but in the past this has been allowed and it will preclude your vehicle from being smogged, but only once inspected and certified at a referee station. Seems like a lot of work to just keep from going to a smog check station every 2 years. :dunno: 5 trips to the smog check station over 10 years will be cheaper and take less time than an engine swap.
If you are going to move out of CA just because of the vehicle smog issue, then I doubt you lived here in the 70's and 80's. The air in this state is much cleaner now, largely due to these "joke" smog laws you speak of. Personally, I take offense to someone who knowingly drives around a poorly running vehicle just because they are too cheap/lazy to fix it. The smog laws keep these vehicles off the road for everyone's sake.
Bryan -
You and I have probably discussed this before, but I have no trouble with the Smog Check programme
in principle.
The
execution, however, blows. Why?
1) It amounts to little more than a surtax on vehicle registration - since it's made a mandatory part of the process. Much of the surtax goes to a shop, with a part going to the State - but that makes it no less a tax.
2) They can profile you as a "gross polluter" for no good reason, and send you to a "Gold Shield" or a "Test Only" station at a whim (I'm reasonably sure the Gold Shield test costs more than the regular test. I
know the Test Only test costs more than the regular test - last time I had to get one of those, it was ninety dollars. Registration was about fifty.)
3) The tailend of (2) - on older vehicles (which are easier to modify to run more cleanly,) you're not allowed to modify the system to effect a beneficial change, and the smog check costs more than the registration renewal!
4) The visual test is a joke. Make sure you have the fuel filler restrictor? Where are you going to buy Regular gasoline in California? I haven't seen it since I left Indiana twenty years ago! The intake preheater system (which isn't really necessary on a properly-running fuel injected engine, since it's already programmed with a "cold start" routine,) hasn't been functional on any of my RENIX-era XJs - but it always gets checked off as "PASS." This despite my having ditched that silly little hose from the exhaust manifold intake preheater (the damned things fell apart anyhow.)
5) If they're serious about improving air quality, then people who drive older vehicles (like many of us,) can get a discount on registration on a sliding scale - according to reduction of tailpipe emissions. If I can make my 88 run cleaner than a 98, then I should get two things: 1) A free hand to do so (read: get rid of the visual. Let me modify things.) 2) A discount to reflect the benefit to air quality, when it comes to registration (if not to the Smog Check itself.)
6) Likewise, if they're serious, how about "smoker tickets?" I would also like to see a beneficial change in air quality (it doesn't bother me so much, but my wife is asthmatic,) and there are entirely too many vehicles I see going about with blown rings, blown valve guide seals, running rich, and that sort of thing. It could be implemented as a variation on the "fix-it tickets" currently issued for other equipment violations (primarily lighting.) Some of these repairs aren't cheap, but they'd cost less than a hospital bill when I have to check my wife in for an asthma flare-up that was exacerbated by some jackass who can't maintain his vehicle...
7) Engine swap rules get kind of silly as well - "same vehicle of same year or newer, OEM option" seems to be the rule here. This precludes some other swaps that could be quite beneficial - unless you can get the body re-registered as a "kit car" and go about it that way. I don't know - I haven't looked into Referee regs recently. But, if I want to take an econobox, build a lightweight commuter/runabout, and have a free hand in picking parts - not gonna happen. Doesn't matter how clean I can make the thing run.
(Besides, if they want to get serious about reducing aggregate tailpipe emissions, I've got a fix for that as well. Actually, it would fix aggregate overall emissions, traffic problems, congestion, and the like at a stroke - offer the test and materials in
English only. That should get about half of everyone off the road to begin with. Ensure competency in evaluation, and we can cut that down still farther.
(Beneficial effects? 1) Reduced traffic. 2) Reduced need for roadway maintenance. 3) Improved air quality. 4) Forced improvements in public transportation. 5) Net reduction in petrofuel consumption. I could come up with more if I thought about it.)
And why aren't we doing anything about small two-stroke engines? Not just personal watercraft (which I think they did decide to do something about) and small dirt bikes (ditto?) but what about weedwhackers and leaf blowers? I use an electric weedwhacker (asthmatic wife) and I flatly refuse to use a leaf blower (rake up the big stuff, wash the little stuff down with a hose. Keeps dust down - asthmatic wife,) but I see those wretched things running everywhere. And, no matter how well-tuned the engine is, you're running oil through the combustion process - which means you're releasing a (relatively) massive amount of raw hydrocarbons into the air. And yet, we don't do anything about it. (Ever see two of those guys get into a fight over a leaf, blowing it back and forth? Oh, FFS. Last time I was walking about and saw that happening, I picked up the leaf and stuffed it in the guy's pocket. Idiot.)
HOV lanes. Drive around sometime, and see the thing go empty. Oddly, it doesn't serve to motivate people to carpool. So, why not just open the lanes back up and let traffic move freely? It makes no sense to close one-fourth or one-third of the freeway to general traffic
when it's needed most.
The Smog Check programme isn't the only thing that should be revised in an effort to improve air quality - California has made plenty of mistakes. Those mistakes just haven't caught up to them yet...
forum :cheers: post one complete.
