I tried to find a thread on my specific situation but couldn't come up with anything so here goes.

I live in CA and work in a family maintenance/repair garage so I have many lifts and an alignment rack at my disposal 24/7. So changing out my exhaust for smog every 2 years wouldn't be a big deal to me, but I have 2 questions.

There's a smog shop across the street from the garage that we send all of our customers to, and I see the smog guy that works there everyday. I know this guy is lazy as hell so I kinda doubt he really does the visual inspection. If I left the headers on there with a catted X, only other mods being a Vararam, axle back, and dyno tune from CMS, would I be able to pass?

And if I did have to put the stock catted H pipe back on for smog, can I use a programmer to store my dyno tune and stock tune and switch between them while testing? Thanks in advance

 

as long as you have no codes you will pass.visual won't pass though.i would go talk to the guy,let him know where you work get to know him and ask if he'll test it without the visual.problem is if you just risk it and he does a visual he will fail you and flag you.then you will have to go to a "test only" shop and be 100% legit.

you should be able to put you stock exhaust on and keep the dyno tune in the car.i use to do it every other year and never changed the tune.and that was when they did the tailpipe test.now they just check for codes and don't do tailpipe tests.

 

I should assume that I would need headers with the A.I.R. fittings as well, correct?

 

i'm not sure.if you don't have the fittings now then the tune most have that deleted.i don't know if the smog test would know that it's been turned off.
i would ask the smog guy he'll know what his test can pick up.if he is going to smog without the visual i'm sure he would let you know if you need the a.i.r. hooked up.

 

talk to your guy, make a friend, my guy is pretty helpful. its hard to take a risk with someone you just met.

 

If it were me I would consider the LS7 manifolds/mid-pipe setup. No smog inspection issues (unless inspector somehow knows it's not original which I find hard to believe), no having to uninstall and reinstall headers and mid-pipe every two years and you will see a gain over the stock equipment.

 

Maybe I am missing something or California is different for the emissions test. You said you have a catted X. If you have a catted X, you should be fine. In live in Denver where we do emission tests as well. I have a Z06 with long tubes and a catted X and no issues at all. Cats are visible during the inspection and emissions is fine. I got the catted X so I did not have to worry about emissions are swap things out every 2 years.

 

Any updates? A friend at work said you won't fail a visual with long tubes as long as you have cats. Not sure how true this is.

 

In CA only LT's (or any aftermarket engine related part) that have passed the CA Code (big $$$$$) can pass visual. That said when I lived in CA I had a shop that did not do visuals, but did do the test so if you passed your good.

 

problem with the ls7 manifolds is they don't have the a.i.r tube on them.i guess you could weld some in and hope the tech doesn't notice.

 

in california any aftermarket part that attach to the engine needs to have a carb number assigned to it.no LT's have a carb number because they moves the cats further back and the air resource board won't allow that.there are shorty headers that have the carb number and they can be legally smogged.