All,
As a CA resident who successfully smogged his '74 TR6 yesterday
in San Diego, I can give a fairly accurate description of what is
required.
Smog stations carry out 3 tests; 1) a visual inspection -
every smog station has a book published by the California Air Resources Board
(CARB) which lists equipment that is to be found for a specific car for a
specific year. The equipment must be correctly connected and functional.
If the car does not pass visual, do not pass GO, do not collect $200.
The next stage is the idle test (about 1000 rpm), and here the
computer is looking specifically at hydrocarbons (HC, in parts-per-million)
and percent carbon-monoxide (CO). Other gases such as oxygen and
carbon-dioxide are also measured, but are only used to test for leaks
in the exhaust system (if you have a leaky exhaust, do not pass GO,
do not......).
The third stage is a test at 2500 rpm. Here the same HC and CO
values are tested.
In the table below, I list HC/CO pairs for the idle:2500-rpm
test (this comes straight out of the CARB manual, and is only a guideline
for testers and consumers. The decision to pass or fail a car is made by
a computer in Sacramento, not at the smog station). I have given
two time periods below for cars made between 1971-1974 and 1966-1967.
The column "Pass/Fail" is the maximum emissions allowed. The
column "Gross Polluter" is what you definately DONT want to exceed,
and the column "Average" is based upon actual vehicle tests.
Years Pass/Fail Gross Polluter Average
Idle:2500-rpm Idle:2500-rpm Idle:2500-rpm
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1971-74 550/5.0:400/4.0 800/7.5:650/6.5 147/1.8:123/1.4
1966-67 700/5.5:600/4.4 950/8.0:850/7.0 212/2.3:182/1.7
"Rags" passed the idle:2500-rpm tests with the HC/CO values
of 129/4.44:32/1.16 (required rebuilding the carbs and new main metering
jets).
Having said all of that, cars that are "imported" from out of state,
modified engines and non-matching-number engines cannot go to any
smog station, instead they must go direct to the State-run Referee Station.
A fail at this point means that your car can never be registered in the
*fair* state of CA.
Hope this helps.
Shane Ingate
Clean TR6 in San Diego
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