I recently purchased a '79 corvette but I have almost no previous car experience. I am at school in the Raleigh area. I have attempted to take my car to a few shops around here for minor work, but very few people will actually work on it because it has been modified. If anyone knows of a reliable shop around here, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions. Also, I am having trouble getting it to pass inspection. Would anyone happen to know of a place that might be able to cut me some slack? I have taken off the hooker headers and side pipes that came with the car and put on the original exhaust along with replacing the previous 650 Holley double pumper yet I still have a few things the state requires me to have. I may have to go as far as replacing the intake manifold. All of this is to say, if anyone has a suggestion of a place to go or something that would help me on my way to passing inspection, I would appreciate it.

 

Welcome to the forum, Colin70! This is the place to learn to do it yourself. The forum folks will advise everything from tools to proven perf/emission parts and combos! Good Luck -Rod :chevy

 

Welcome. You might want to post a question in the Southeast section. Guys there might be able to help you with the inspection problem :seeya

 

Welcome to the forum. These guys can answer anything you can come up with. :cheers:

 

colin, can't help you with shops but what i'm curious to know is what other things are they looking at? how strict is the emissions regs in NC? are the inspectors state guys or local high school shmoes? what are they telling you that leads you to believe you'll have to remove your carb and intake?
some pointers that may help you to pass a smog test are to block off your radiator enough so the engine runs a bit warmer, 210-225* will run 'cleaner' than 160-180*. always service the car before you go, oil change, air filter change, new plugs and stuff. run it on the freeway for a 10-20 miles first to make sure it is all the way up to temp, just make sure you don't block the radiator too much to overheat the car. if you have high hydrocarbons, which come primarily from burning oil, change to a heavier grade of oil like 20w-50. some other things that can help would be to play with the ignition advance and maybe even pull a vacuum line off the manifold to run the engine lean (just long enough to pass the test).
problem is, it sounds like you have quite a bit of work done to the engine. you may have too much cam to pass a strict test. if the car was registered before, maybe you could speak to the previous owner and find out how he/she smogged the car. or you may be able to grease the wheels of government to get it to pass. keep us posted on how things go.

 

I haven't even been able to get a place to put a sniffer back there yet. At ever step they need me to put something else on before they'll look farther. Right now I need to add the air pump, which I have, but have yet to put on b/c I need to do some basic plumbing to move hoses out of the way. I still need a thermostatic air control before they'll look at it further. This may sound ignorant, but I'm not even positive what that does or where it'd go. Is there a way to just run a hose somewhere and make it look like I have one? I had to change out the carb b/c it was a holley double pumper and burning extremely rich. So rich, in fact, that it had backfired and caught my air filter on fire. I was barely getting 10 mi/gal. Now I have one of the edelbrock 50 state legal ones and it runs great. I haven't been to any official state inpsection places yet, mostly just local mechanics. I'm going to install the air pump this weekend so hopefully I might be able to convince some place to just let me slide on the thermostatic air control. I'll keep y'all updated.

 

Are u Going to sell the Headers and Sidepipes..If so I would be interested...U could always wait 3 years untill it became emission Exempt,,,,But I am sure that is not a viable alternative

 

You need to talk to a member named tom454 (he is in the Raliegh area) and runs a shop if memory serves. I've only met the man once - during a vacation visit, but he seems like an up front guy. I dont know if he can help you with skirting the laws but he almost certainly can hook you up with someone who can help make your car pass.

 

Go ahead and install the air pump. The thermostatic air controil sounds like tha air cleaner assembly. You probably have an open element air cleaner (open element meaning you have a round chrome air filter in which you can see the filter element around its perimeter) The thermostatic air cleaner is an enclosed unit that has vacuum controlled doors in it to direct warm air from the area above the exhaust manifold to the carburator. This is done to promote faster warm ups and hence less emissions. You probably also require an EGR valve.

This air cleaner assembly can probably be found at a local bone yard (salvage yard) or if you are really fortunate, loaned by another forum member. I've done stuff like this before. I've even loaned the fan off my engine once for a bud who wanted to make a few more runs down the 1/4 mile but his engine fan wasnt cutting it. We put mine on because it worked great.


[Modified by fauxrs, 7:52 AM 3/5/2002]

 

Colin70; welcome; yea call Tiger's Auto at 834.6955 (that's his real name) he is factory trained GM and ZR-1 trained. Works on a lot of plastic cars, does a good job and competitive $$, done a few things on my 81 I couldn't do, and I am happy with work for $$. He is downtown, and is open on Saturday by appointment. check him out. Also see http://www.corvettesinternational.com a local club, we got 75+ members all years. :smash:

 

Do you have any idea what the inspectors mean by a thermostatic air control? And is it a 1979 or a 1970 as your signature implies?



Perhaps this?




[Modified by paul79, 11:00 AM 3/5/2002]

 

why don't you just come to Montana.....no inspections :yesnod:

 

Welcome, I have a 1979, but my husband works on ours.

:crazy:

 

The car is a 79, I used 70 because that was my number in football. I realized about 2 seconds after i created my name that it would be very misleading. Sorry about the confusion.

 

What's this about the 3 yrs? I haven't heard about this before. I would definitely be willing to wait three years if it meant I got to put those headers and side pipes back on, I loved them.

 

North Carolina does not have a CARB law, but does use Bar90 for inspections. that is if it can with it, probably better have it, ie air pump etc. Cats can be after market, but they will look. Get a GM service manual and a assembly manual, this will show pics, p/n's and where stuff goes. Some of us locals (Raleigh ) can help you with parts etc. good luck and keep :smash: