Hollywood Extra

Hey guys...

I tried searching through the forums, but I seemed to stumble on to threads that were more concerned with the pros/cons of living in CA. My intention is NOT to start that debate here...again.

I am currently living in AZ and will hopefully be relocating to Southern CA sometime in the next year for work. I have a 2006 Z06 that I bought used in March of this year.

As I approach the 6 month mark I am starting to get the itch to make some modifications. It is, and will be, my daily driver for the next couple years - so I am going to stick with minor modifications for now. Intake, full exhaust, tune, and cosmetics. Then a couple years down the road when I have another daily driver I'll get more serious with internal engine modifications.

What I'm concerned about are any modifications that will affect my ability to register the car in CA. Or is there an exception for modifications done to the car while it was registered out of state?

My next concern would be any limits to modifications that I can perform once in CA.

Any help, insight, and advice would be much appreciated! From the forums I've already read I've decided to deal with AAA in lieu of the DMV ...

achilds

You can check the california DMV website. I believe if you are relocating here the car in its stock form can easily be registered even if it does not have the CA certificate option. Most cars do these days though. As far as mods, cat backs are fine, no one makes a CARB legal set of headers as far as I know. Internal mods are harder to check, so you might get away with mild cam and heads. Good luck

63Corvette

1) Wheels
2) Tires
3) brake pads
4) brake fluid
5) Whatever is on your stereo

jamsvet

You sure brake pads are OK? Could be environmental problems with too much brake dust.

The running man

www.killcarb.org

TapOut

Basically all you have to worry about is passing through the tailpipe. Shorty headers are legal, but absolutely no long tubes are allowed in CA. That being said, if you can conceal the long tubes, or find someone to overlook them....then you'll be back to just passing out of the tailpipe and everything is fine. And of course no check engine lights or any other blatant smog infractions.

You can also just swap between a stock and modded exhaust every other year, but depending on you.....this may start to become a pain in the *** (It was for me with my old cars, that's why the Z isn't getting touched). I would stick to a tune and cat back mods and not worry about the headache....but that's just me.

bearphoto

If your car is registered out of state and has illegal parts for CA, you will not be able to reg the car here. Example is headers, while headers are legal here they must have a CARB number on them as do other emission parts that are changed. From the cats back, those are not an issue.

So if you have parts already on your car in Az, that are not legal here, change them back to stock or order CARB approved parts and install them.

You will be pleasantly surprised to learn at least our registration fees are cheaper than Arizonas by a substantial amount.

As for your emissions sticker, the fact that your car is older than one year old and has more than 7500 miles on it, the emissions sticker does not have to be CA approved.

RFZ

a 50 state carb legal supercharger would work nicely

jimbob8915

Edelbrock E-Force is CARB approved.

haljensen

No headers are CARB approved, no aftermarket cats are CARB approved.

TapOut

Well that's not 100% accurate. Long tube headers are NOT CARB approved, but there are plenty of shorty headers that are CARB legal. But from most of the tests I've seen, the stock LS7 shorty headers are pretty high flowing, so you would only see minimal improvement by going with a set of aftermarket shorties or something. Although I do know of a guy that pulled the CARB plaque off of his JBA shorties, and welded it onto a set of long tubes and he's passed visual without any issues for several years now.

There are also several high flowing cats that are legal. As long as the cats are physically there, and you pass out the tailpipe....no one cares if they are high flowing or not.

haljensen

I guess you haven't read the regulations too well. "Original catalytic converters in the orignal location" is part of the regs. No allowance for any aftermaket cats.

There are NO shorty headers for the C6 that are CARB approved, matter of fact there are no headers at all that are CARB approved.

Katech_Zach

There are plenty of headers that are CARB approved. Edelbrock has several. Unfortunately none for the C6 and it looks like CARB hasn't granted many in the last few years. To see for yourself go to this page http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/aftermk...es/amquery.php and select exhaust systems to browse by device.

To the OP, basically you can't do anything to the powertrain unless it's CARB approved and right now for the C6 that means only a few superchargers.

sublime1996525

I know on my 2002 Z06 I had SLP long tubes with high flow cats and a blackwing intake. That was all and it didn't pass the sniffer. A tune might've helped.

Hollywood Extra

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your input.

Painrace

I just knew our Mexican friend was driving an ILLEGAL car!

Jim

Vette5.5

What many dont realize about Cats, is the closer they are to the head exhaust ports, the quicker the light off on cold starts. The car is certified with this design, and one of the things they'll likely be looking for. Also, the Cats may not get as hot mounted behind long tubes. As already mentioned, these cars have SS shorties from the factory.

trickability

im with you 1,00000000000000 percent !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alfreds Z06

The words California and legal do not go together

McMung

Sigh.