In California, cars newer than 1975 have to be smogged. In Washington, cars older than 25 years don't have to. My vette is registered in Washington, but I am stationed in California. She is a 1978, so she is obviously newer than 75 and therefore requires smog in CA, but is older than 25 years, so doesn't need to in WA. Do I need to have it smogged? Or can I go ahead and remove the cats?

 

My best guess........... As long as you keep the car registered with the state of Washington, you will not get a smog requirement notice from the state of CA. So, techninally you can take the cats off, BUT the state of Washington is still keeping tabs on the car. If the state of Washington sends you a notice to have it smogged, do you have to go back to Washington? Or can you get it smogged here?
You see the "Catch 22" here? The DMV is like a sleeping dog...... LEAVE IT ALONE!!
What do you mean by "stationed" here? Are you on a contract job of some sorts, or are you in the military? Then there's that thing about living and working in CA and not registering your vehicle with the CA DMV. Back in the day, you wern't supposed to do that. not too sure about that now.

If you really want to remove the cats, take the car to a good muffler shop, have them remove them with the understanding that there may come a day when the cats will have to be put back on.
This is just my opinion and not advice.

 

Reputable muffler shops won't remove a catalytic converter without replacing it with a new one. I believe that, in most states, it's illegal for them to do so.

 

Take the cat off get a pipe of the same diameter. Run it through the cat this way in either state you are visually legal. All states that have no smog do have rules against removing the smog system. None or almost none of them unforced these policy's though. If your in camp pen or another Cali military base. Some one on base knows how to get a car passed through a smog guy that will pull strings. You need to pay more in my expierence $50-100. Then you can get the smog certificate for Cali if you want. I will tell you this when I moved to SoCal from mo I had a beautiful 1998 Buick skylark with 300,000 miles on it. I loved that car but it got impounded b/c I was seen by the local (Ontario) police driving it for 3 months without Cali tags. I work in California and had a California mailing address so I was not allowed legally to keep the car here without registering it here. I also had to change my drivers license. Long story short I got fined out the wazoo and the car was sold to car max for $100 to get me out from under the fees on a car that I know wouldn't pass smog with out a whole new exhaust system plus the check engine light was on for low compression. Rules may be different for service men but Cali is a strict bitch on out of state tags don't risk it.

 

I agree with the others, propably best leaving things alone for now, unless your current cat is plugged up. If there's a chance you will need to register the car in CA, due to length of stay, you'll be wanting to keep the factory looking single cat set up, as many cities require an under car/under hood visual inspection as well. If an under hood A.I.R. pump is missing, you'll need to replace it. If Washington does pass emmisions testing, probably just a sniffer test, and could probably go full dual exhuast, with inline hi flow cats. These newer cat designs, add virtually no restriction at all.

 

I assume you are military and therefore you are not a resident of California unless you want to become one.. Non issue as long as the car is legal in the state and county it is registered in..

Bob G.

 

Yes, I'm a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton. The car is registered in King County, where it doesn't have to pass any sort of emissions testing, and because I'm not a resident of California, I presume that I don't have to do anything with the state of California. I was hoping to run some true duals on the 78, but I was just checking with y'all to see if you guys were aware of something that would keep me from doing this.

 

I am A Cali resident and my car is current smogged and registered with true duals

 

Maybe I'll just go in and talk to a muffler shop and see what they can do. All I want is some flowmaster 40's on some duals, so maybe they can work that with the cats, or a new set, etc.

 

Yep, it use to be a $10,000 fine if the shop was caught doing it.

 

I know of a guy that registered his majorly modified 1979 El Camino in CA as a Historical Vehicle by doing this he no longer needed to smog the vehicle.

 

Look up a "Performance Exhaust " shop, not a muffler shop.Keep it registered in your home state.

 

Does the base require you to get smog?

They use to at one point. If not keep it registered out of state.

 

That could be a mistake. Why not call the California DMV and ask? My money says they probably get a lot of similar calls in and around Camp Pendleton.

 

keep it registered in your home state but here in Los Angeles we get the occasional smog check point where they inspect your vehicle for mods and if you are in California for a certain amount of time they will pull you over and ask how long you have been here and why haven't you registered in California. I got pulled over twice once for Mississippi and one for texas plates roaming around for about 6 months but I am a cali original with cali license so I couldn't talk my self out of it like I was just visiting. I have my car with true duals no cats but I have the original exhaust with cat in garage and I set up my exhaust to bolt on in 3 pieces for easy removal. good luck.