^^ i to have heard of these goings on. with greater frequency i might add.

 

My smog guy took one look at my AP exhaust and said "forget it, too many mods". I'm swapping for the stock exhaust and getting the dealer to flash me back to factory stock. Fighting California is like resisting the Borg. So not worth it.

 

I've been going to the same guy for years, have not really changed much over the last 3 years. Have always tried to choose hoses etc. that maintain stock appearance (black, nothing flashy), still using stock intake, I do have an exhaust (which isn't too loud, Speedtech 2.5 X), and other mods in my signature.

No issues with my Proto tune, which allows me to swap CATS in and out without any check engine lights.

Good luck.

 

If you can run no cats without a CEL, your tune has disabled your downstream O2 sensors and most likely your secondary air pump. To each his own.

 

Protomotive did the tuning, so I can't speak for Todd. I have no problem with my rear O2's being disabled, in my experience, the primary O2's are used for fuel mixture. I can't comment on whether or not the secondary air pump is disabled.

Tell me something I didn't already know. What is the point of your post ?

 

I'm not judging but what I think you're doing is illegal. That's all.

 

I run CATS on the street, if I need to remove CATs for DE, I can do so without causing CEL. Almost every car in this forum would fail CA guidelines.

My car ran very clean when they used to do the sniffer test. Not sure what the concern is ?

My smog guy did a visual, confirmed CATS were installed like everyone else. I suppose he could have put up a stink over the exhaust, which is the same exhaust that passed with flying colors on the sniffer.

 

Oh, do tell on how you've never went above the speed limit on a public road in your PORSCHE.

Just giving you a hard time...I did my due diligence and put stock exhaust on when I had mine smogged last summer. Passed first try, and that's also with Billet K16's, EPL tune, and some other goodies also.

Next summer....well that's another story.

 

[QUOTE=split71;4385700]Oh, do tell on how you've never went above the speed limit on a public road in your PORSCHE.

Yeah, really

 

CARB has not only changed the rules (no more if you pass sniff you pass) but has been conducting sting operations. The guy I've been going to for 8 years just said, I can't test you and make sure you don't get flagged someplace else as a fail visual. (Speedtech Exhaust and headers). So I order a Europipe exhaust which looks really close to factory and had them stamp the PCNA part number clearly visible on the muffler. Then had all the cosmoline removed and the complete under carriage cleaned so it would look like the new exhaust. Swapping out headers to stock manifolds is a snap, and I didn't even flash back to stock. 10 minutes later, a smog certificate. Not a cheap fix, but I don't have to worry in the future and it gave me a good excuse to buy a Europipe.

 

Hate to bump this back up, but I've been searching nation wide for a 996 turbo. I'm looking for something already done up and concerned about getting it registered in Cali.

The car will has every bolt on done with 1000cc injectors and 3" exhaust. It will come with cats, but from the read of things, it sounds as though the tech will just look visually and then do a obd read.

For those of you that are highly modified in CA, any challenges you are getting with smog techs? Is this something I should be worried about? Buying a car out of state and then not being able to get it registered due to smog

 

I hate to add unnecessary worry, but it is absolutely something that you need to be worried about, and definitely a reason that I personally would not buy a highly modified car from out of state (if at all).

Depending on your determination and inclination (willingness to return car to "stock"/knowing a friendly smog guy), you probably shouldn't let it stop you from the right car otherwise -- but IMHO, it's hard not to factor it into the decision.

 

Yep, I get you. I've owned highly modified cars in the past that I've built when I was younger but finding a way to smog it was a PITA and so I'm just not wanting to deal with that anymore.

That's why I am trying to get a little more background on current smog. For example, my 97 Dodge Viper has headers, exhaust, muffler delete, etc and my smog tech passed it because the engine bay looks stock and regardless, it passed the sniff test.

Seeing that the 996 is going to be a visual + scan, what is it that would flag the tech? Again, visually, I feel as though so long that there are cats and the bay doesn't have anything flashy, they won't know the difference between stock/modified. I'm more worried about the odbii scan and what it is checking for and what would flag it on a modified 996. I know O2 sensors, but the car will have cats. What else?

 

Have the seller get an OBD readiness screen printout for you. If it fails anything more than (1) monitor I don't think you can pass. They moved on from traditional sniffer tests and focus on the OBD2 readiness check and visual inspection. I had to go through this a few months back

 

I may be wrong but I think they're super critical when cars are brought from out of state. That's what happened to me.