California Cars - Emission Issues

I had the previous owner get me a passed smog certificate or no deal. It passed easily and runs great.
I bought my 308 in California in 2017.
I also verified myself all smog equipment was installed. No missing smog pump belt, cats present , all air injection components present, etc. I wanted a totally original / correct 308. I researched what the 308 should have and purchased a correct 308.
No strong HC smells from exhaust.

 

Aren't US cars 50 state? I thought the smog pump and cats were all US cars after a certain date.

 

As I understand it, removing the emissions equipment will have negligible impact on performance.

There will be a small reduction in weight which would be beneficial but the change to the power the engine delivers will be negligible. Modern cats cause negligible back pressure.

The biggest problem for us living in California is the smog test process; test centers don't know our rare cars and they are not listed in Gov't dbs so their default reaction is to flunk them. I'm not defending the system, but the California smog test requirement is much demonized.

The thing we lose in California is flexibility in how we modify and tweak our cars. We are restricted to what the smog test centers will pass, which means changes that look bone stock and still have the car blow compliant numbers.

Buying a car from California would not cause a problem for you. In fact, California cars are by necessity, very well maintained ... at least from a engine-tune perspective.

 

Total non issue on a 328 and very little on an injected 308. The problems arise with the carb cars. Many if not most have been desmogged to some degree or other. In some cases it was a poorly guided attempt at more power but in most cases it was done because of the inability of so many to keep it all working correctly or just not wanting to be bothered. Traditionally it was easy to cheat the system. I could get smog certs done on telephone poles if I wanted to. That is getting harder. The real problem is California is already requiring a 308 carb car to pass more strict standards than what the car was designed for and that will get worse. The state has no interest in vintage cars and would be perfectly happy to see them gone. You are the enemy to their goal of environmental nirvana and given enough time they will run you right over. If living in California is what you really want do not buy a vintage car.

 

The problem cars (of all makes) in California are pretty much in the '76 to '79 range which, for 308's (as Rifledriver pointed out) are the carbureted cars. The emissions equipment of that era was complicated, cumbersome and difficult to maintain. It's difficult to get carburetors to behave across the whole range. You can tune them to run perfect and clean in normal operation but throw in cold starts, dropped throttle deceleration and wide open throttle acceleration and it takes a Rube Goldberg mess of contraptions and a bunch of compromises to get them to be compliant. Fuel injection solved all of that for the most part. The emissions equipment on a QV is pretty simple, even simpler on the 328. Most of the complicated looking stuff (hoses and canisters) are just the vapor trap and recovery devices and don't affect performance.

 

This may be the case for US market cars (328'sand injected 308's) but is not the case with Euro cars imported into the US and modified for US emissions.

 

Why I always advise against grey market cars. Little to no good reason to buy one.

 

My present 78 carb 308 had no problems passing California smog test, but it does have only 17k miles on it.
I had a 76 and 79 308 and had no problem passing California smog test.

PPI and smog test a must prior to a carb car purchase, if living in California.

 

This is exactly what I did. My California '78 carb GTS was wonderfully kept by the PO. It was in noticeably better condition than any I looked at with a more local origin. And it wasn't just the engine tune. Eg, the quality was immediately clear to me from just looking at the condition of nuts & bolts in the engine bay. All confirmed by a glowing PPI. The paintwork is certainly showing its age but I regard that as a minor issue easily dealt with in due course.

 

All the USA specification 308's/328's were built to the same specification, there is no special California specification car.
The 76/77 carburated USA version 308's had no catalytic converters from the factory. Even with twin air injection pumps, they are very difficult to pass the latest California smog test. The carbs must be rejetted so lean that the car will barely drive in order to pass. Due to California's arcane laws, you cannot install cats on a car the didn't originally have them. The later 79/79 carburated USA spec 308's came from the factory with catalysts and pass the test if the engine is running well and the cats are in good shape.
Later injected cars will pass no problem if the cats are in good condition and the car is running properly. The latest 328's with closed loop lambda control and a cat has the best power and will pass the emissions test with flying colors.
If you don't care about emissions, then a Euro-spec dry-sump carburated 308 is the way to go for power.

 

Anyone know what s/n range the cats started showing up in the carb cars?

 

You mean no good reason for a Californian to buy one, right? The euro cars are fun and simple. Brought my car from the UK and registered in 15 minutes, $99 for two rears...in Arizona. So to me, no good reason NOT to buy one.

 

As Motob posted, it's by US model year, not SN:

US 1977 and before = no cats (but better power with more aggressive cams)

US 1978 and US 1979 = has cats (but have less power due to detuned cams -- they had to detune the cams to prevent too much unburned fuel from getting into the cats and overheating them).

 

I’ve owned my 82 Euro for almost 10 years and it has passed smog each time. I agree with others here that CA expects you to ride the bus and has no appreciation for classic cars. The environmental impact of a classic car driven only a few hundred to few thousand miles a year is so negligible as to be unmeasurable. But the policy isn’t based on fact and logic.