FJ40, Cali Smog :( Chevy Small block TBI (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Two things:
(1) When I wrote that I did not know of a TBI conversion that was Cali smog legal, I was thinking TBI conversion on the stock 6 cal. I absolutely know TBI V8's can easily be smog legal.
(2) For those thinking it is easy to smog the stock 6 cyl. with stock emissions equipment, know that when Downey was trying to get the TBI conversion smog legal back in the 1990's, we were testing with 3 different FJ60's, all had defective pieces of emissions equipment, Toyota had discontinued some of the pieces, and we had to patch/epoxy pieces just to conduct the Fed. testing. It's one thing to have all the devices intact, another thing to get them to operate properly to pass a smog test.
 
Please explain how they "ref" can tell which vehicle a small block chevy came from? I'm going to qualify that by saying a mid 80's 350, or early 90's 305 etc.....(same basic generations blah blah) induction systems changed with vehicle applications, but a sbc is a sbc( with the exception of mechanical vs. electric fuel pumps).... ECU's who cares- get one for either a manual trans or automatic as req'd. Trans appropriate camshaft, cats, correct number of O2's for you model year motor, correct induction system, correct emissions system.

The ref won't care what the block is from, he'll go by the engine number for the year. You tell them which legal configuration it is supposed to be and they look in the books to verify. And support components need to match by part number. They will check the cats and look for appropriate id numbers.
 
I am continually amazed by the folks who think this is the first rodeo for the California Bureau of Automotive Repair and the "Refs" that work for them. For every anecdotal story of a guy that claims he beat the BAR, there are dozens who went back home to try again, and some who threw in the towel. This last item I know for a fact because I have bought and parted rigs that were not worth the cost to smog.

Several things folks can do to prevent a major headache :
1 - read the info on the DMV and BAR websites,
2 - contact the BAR and discuss your SPECIFIC problem or project, and
3 - understand the BAR gets the last word.
 
They have got to update the exemption year in California. The expectation for a '76 vehicle to have all smog equipment intact, functional, and pass emissions is unrealistic. The law is totally out of date. They should've made it x number of years old as opposed to a fixed year.
 
They have got to update the exemption year in California. The expectation for a '76 vehicle to have all smog equipment intact, functional, and pass emissions is unrealistic. The law is totally out of date. They should've made it x number of years old as opposed to a fixed year.
They won't because they want 1976-older vehicles off the highways/already scrapped.
 
What Super Buick said!!! SEMA is fighting the States that want to scrap older vehicles.
 
They won't because they want 1976-older vehicles off the highways/already scrapped.
That's because so many Americans are working high-income jobs now we should all be able to buy new cars! :rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Welcome to the future. In the Peoples Republic of Washington State they have been edging toward adopting the Cali rules and regs in total. I suspect there are a lot of state governments that look at the Cali regs with envy.
 
They have got to update the exemption year in California. The expectation for a '76 vehicle to have all smog equipment intact, functional, and pass emissions is unrealistic. The law is totally out of date. They should've made it x number of years old as opposed to a fixed year.

They don't care. Because.....

They won't because they want 1976-older vehicles off the highways/already scrapped.

This is correct.
 
What Super Buick said!!! SEMA is fighting the States that want to scrap older vehicles.

Environmentalist are continuously presenting bills to CA legislature to take all smog exemptions away. About five years ago there was a bill to make it illegal to preform maintenance on our own vehicles (we don't know what we're doing without ASE certs = more smog, was the argument). Didn't pass because cooler heads prevailed and SEMA lobbyists.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom