I heard today that our florida govenor is going to bring emissions testing back to our state,says he wants to adopt california guide lines,there goes our mods and there goes our money and time.

 

California is the strictest by far. Very little if any room for aftermarket mods unless thay have CARB approval. Most mods being done now (Long Tube Headers, CAI's etc.) to Corvettes won't meet the standards. I also suspect that as soon as the first C-6's reach the 5-year no smog check in other states, owners are going to be facing additional expense to re-fit with smog legal parts......

 

Oh No! I was just thinking the other day about moving to Florida, so I could really get into performance mods. Now I'll have to change locations.

 

Time to move.

IMO emission testing is just another excuse for the Government to intrude into everyone's life and yet another bureaucracy designed to take your money. Politicians like to jump on the popularity bandwagon but the fact of the matter is emission testing is a waste!

The over-whelming majority of cars pass the emissions test. The small percentage of vehicles that don't pass the test does not justify the expense and inconvenience of testing. With the natural attrition of older vehicles and newer cars passing the test easily....there is truly no need to test vehicles en masse. Besides, if they ever figured all the pollutants released just by cars waiting in-line to be tested, it would probably exceed all the pollutants released by the small number of cars that fail the test. For the minimal effectiveness of testing; for the man hours of productivity lost; and, for the needless expense to the taxpayer’s emissions testing is unwarranted.

You mention headers. Cars with long tube headers will likely pass a sniffer test but may fail to pass a visual inspection...with relocated, after-market cats. If your car can pass a sniffer test and isn't releasing excessive pollutants...what's the big deal? I've heard the argument that the relocated cats are moved further back...they will take a little longer to heat-up and fire and during this additional time period your car will pollute more. IMO that's still pretty weak. If you can drive into a testing station and pass the 'sniffer' test that should be the important thing. Are they going to go-after motorcycles or big-rig, semi-tractors for polluting...probably not?

Many testing stations are getting away from a sniffer test altogether...they simply plug-into your car to check for codes. If your car isn't exhibiting any fault codes you pass the test. They may, however, still fail you based on a visual inspection. Despite Governmental regulations and emissions testing, I know some Corvette owners that routinely pass emissions test with long tube headers while others may not be so fortunate. Go figure!

 

All of the C-6 Corvettes meet Calif. emissions already. I can't speak for mods and the effect they will have. We have lots of C-6's out here with Twin-Turbos and super-chargers on them that somehow pass smog. No, I don't know how they did it or how they got around it, but have a few ideas. Mine is stock, so I have no need to worry about it at this time.

 

The law is not such a bad thing here imo, it is the people behind it. Here in California, they have an "Air Resource Board" that are not elected officials. They have to ability to create policy that effects us, and sometimes quite negatively without us having any say so.

One of their biggest asshat moves was a harsh provision in the "Smog Check 2" law that would impund a vehicle if it failed a second smog test. That was repealled.

Another one of their brilliant decisions was mandating MTBE be required in gas to reduce emissions, which ended up poisoning the water all across the state. It was bad news, and they forced it down our throats (literally & figuratively). It cost us more at the pump to pay for gas with it, and then again cost us more to reformulate the refineries to stop using it.

And still to this day, the board is completely independent of the voters in inacting legislation that can greatly effect us economically with gas reformulations (which we pay the costs for).

Hopefully you all in Florida will do things more rationally, with some actual due process - unlike California.

 

Well, we had emmissions testing in PA for as long as I can remember, and its fairly strict. Outside of removing your CATs, you should pass. However, I know people who still do and "find" places that will slap a sticker on, even though its illegal.

I don't mind the testing, and think it can be helpful. Just yesterday was behind a last gen-Mustang and right away by sound and smell knew he had no CATs. And it sucked being stuck behind him, because his car stunk. So, I'd personally would like to see guys like him get caught, cause I don't want to have to breath in what he was putting out. It was not pleasant in rush hour traffic being behind him.

But I've done loud exhaust mods and other mods, and know friends who have done a ton of mods to their cars, and all still pass. Just leave the CATs on, and you'll pass.

 

There are some mods that are sold as being 50-state legal. ProCharger superchargers, for example, state that they will pass emissions in all 50 states. A lot of mod companies are going to CARB and their ilk and getting their equipment certified because they cannot survive without the California car market.

Here in the People's Republic of Minnesota we actually reversed our emissions testing program - eliminated it altogether. Back in the early-mid 90's, all cars had to be tested annually if they were registered in the 7 county metropolitan area (Minneapolis/St. Paul). It was a joke - if a car failed, it could still be passed if the repairs were to cost in excess of a few hundred dollars. All that did was allow junkers to remain on the street without penalty. We got rid of it, and I can only say

 

Out here in Calif. there are no smog stickers. They connect the smog test machines directly to the cars of course and they are connected directly to the State Department of Motor Vehicles. Stickers not required, but nearly impossible to get around a smog test. I know how to get around it, but my two Corvettes will normally always pass. The '99 has never failed once and its now at 293,000 miles on it. The '07 had to go through smog before they would let me license it here, because I drove it here from BG from the Museum Delivery, rather than it riding a rail car.