Here’s one for the inspection mechanics/techs. Pa emissions law states cars
built between 1975 and 1980 are required to pass only a visual check making sure all factory emissions equipment is present, no tailpipe test required
(Allegeny/Westmoreland counties). Here’s my question, I know where a 77 Chevy Monza (I can hear the laughter now) is for fairly cheap, if I swap out the L4 for a V8 and put the usual headers,etc,etc on, how does the mechanic know what emission equipment to look for? Is there a book, or does the test equipment tell him what to look for by the car’s vin tag? The mid 70’s are kind of vague on emissions equipment, some engines got an air pump, some didn’t and so on. Seems to me that this visual check is cut & dry and this car may never pass if it gets modded. I’d like to build a street/ strip car and avoid having to trailer it. Anyone know?
i thought it was 74 and older wasn’t required to have the tailpipe test. and they would probably just look for your basic stuff like egr, cat. not all had a air pump
Pre 1974 cars get nothing emission related. No test, no visual, not even a sticker, just inspection. Guess I probably should find one of those.
and the 75-95 get tailpipe tests unless they changed it in the last year or two
Ya, they chaned it two years ago. I saw on the state’s website, cars built after 1974 and are 25 years old are now not required to pass a tailpipe test. Here’s a link:
http://www.drivecleanpa.state.pa.us/drivecleanpa/archive/brochure.pdf
Check out our area, there’s an asterick by it, then at the bottom of the page it states about the cars 1975 and 25 years old, really small. The state really made this vague, I bet many emission stations don’t even know about this and just do the tailpipe test anyway. Kinda sucks…
you wouldn’e believe how many inspection updates that occur each year that supplements the book. But the little * at the bottom of that brochure. at least make it clearer on what is supposed to be done.
On a pure visual check I think it should be easy to find a tech that will put stickers on your car. As long as its in nice shape and not just some bucket that the exhaust fell off the techs don’t really give a damn. Most of them hate emissions, and hate doing emissions related work. I used to sneak cars threw just to spite the state.
Just antique plates for the '77. Antique cars (25 years old or older) don’t need to registered, inspected or smog tested. That’s what I did with my Datsun.
bring it to me
here what the trooper told my dad regarding my 85 SS. If the car is mileage exempt, it doesn’t even have to pass the visual.
Thanks for the ideas guys, now at least I have a couple of different ways around this.
you guys have emissions… and inspections every year… :kekegay:
So on the 96 and newer they don’t even hook up the sniffer anymore, they just scan your car and visually inspect?
yep
That’s good because I replaced my cat with a high flow and it threw the P0420 code. I should have a scanner/tuner by next inspection and can just delete the code all together. The o2 will still be hooked up and they won’t suspect a thing.
As long as they dont’ read this :naughty: I guess I’ll be okay.
Sorry for the hi-jack
it has to be driven long enough for the shit to reset or you fail.
An underdriven, freshly reset OBDII will throw P1000 if it hasn’t had enough drive time. A P1000 is grounds for test failure.
P0420 indicates “catalyst efficiency is below normal” and maybe the better airflow you’ve created is causing that or an O2 sensor was damaged?
Thanks for the heads up. I should have a scanner by the middle of winter and that should give it enough time to delete the code completely and get in plenty of drive time. My inspection/emmissions isn’t due up until June.
I think the problem is the increased flow. I had the cat on for a month before putting on ported manis and it threw the code right after the manifold install.
Sorry but I’m new to this and not familar with PA regs yet. Thanks again.