who pass emitions with headers?
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All modifications to the factory "Y-pipe" are illegal. This is a federal mandate. California of all places won't over look this. You'd have to a find a 50 state compliant header and I doubt they exist, btw what engine is in this car?
melman109 said:
G-body's with a Chevy engine. I'm assuming his Pontiac would have a 305 so that would work.
g-boy said:
after the cat, like the Monte SS, 442 and GN, but I really don't think true duals on a smogger 305 will see positive effects .... there is a such thing as too little back-pressure. Compliant headers would dump the exhaust into the factory cat's location anyways - which is why I was surprised to hear they exist. Knew they had emm for F-bodies.
I have a set of Hooker long tube headers with the air injection system. My exhaust system is the 2.5 in system from JEGS with dual cats and it passed the visual portion of the emissions test. I will probably add a H pipe this summer and it shouldn't have issues passing once i get the carb tuned right.... but i also i don't live in Cali so it's different rules for you.
I dunno how it passed, other than the inspector cut you a break or didn't have a clue what he was looking for. The Feds mandate that the certified emmissions package isn't alterred. My car is now exempt from testing and I still couldn't find a place nearby that would touch the "pre-cat exhaust" .... Finally found a place out in the Styx. Since I don't weld, I was worried I was going to have to come up with "bolt-on" lol. Sadly did I NOT know that they included a visual inspection into the state safety. So now I have to grease someone's palm just to get a perfectly safe vehicle to pass, simply because it has NO pollution crap what-so-ever.
DrRansom442 said:
It has passed both the visual and dyno portion since 95 and it has had the headers since then. It failed last year when i swapped my 305 to 350, It only failed cuz it was putting out excessive Nox and HC and that was before i leaned out the carb and got it very close to passing. They went over it with a finetooth comb the second time i took it back and it still passed the visual. Either way i am going to throw a stock q-jet on now and retry it. Then swap my Edelbrock 1405 back on after it passes and i get collector plates. 8) I have known a few other guys that have the same setup and passing.
Each state has different levels of "pickiness". I asked one of the guys working at a STATE testing center (not 3rd-party) and he told me that out here if it had one cat & I added a second one that's ok, but I can't have two and go down to one. When I was in line to get my truck tested a few weeks ago I actually saw an older guy that had a 350 in a '78 El Camino with full length headers, and he said it's been that way for years, passes every time. Basically in AZ you need all the original emissions equipment, I have yet to see anything about engine size being a requirement for the car (they just have a limit for loaded/idle CO and HC emissions). I was going to go this route, but I can get collector car insurance (another possibility if you have another daily driver) and circumvent testing entirely.
Just do your research & ask around, especially at the emissions testing places, they could tell you straight up what they would look for, and what they will pass/fail. Give Summit's site a look too, they list 50-state-legal parts, but you're likely stuck with something like the Edelbrock headers, which aren't cheap.
Just do your research & ask around, especially at the emissions testing places, they could tell you straight up what they would look for, and what they will pass/fail. Give Summit's site a look too, they list 50-state-legal parts, but you're likely stuck with something like the Edelbrock headers, which aren't cheap.
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