New California Emissions Testing

[Chuck S.]

I have read several conflicting news articles about the recently enacted
law(s). I`m trying to determine if my 1965 Corvette will require smog testing every two years. I know with the previous legislation that vehicles over 30 years old were exempt from this testing except prior to sale.

[terry westrick]

Re: New California Emissions Testing

I believe the new law stopped the rolling exemption.

All 1974 and earlier are exempt.

Terry

[Joe L.]

Re: New California Emissions Testing

Chuck------

1974 and older are exempt from biannual testing. However, 1974 and older are not exempt from meeting applicable standards and emissions equipment requirements if the state has reason to believe that they could not meet them. That means that if a vehicle is identified by remote roadside testing or other means as being a likely polluter, then it can be called in for "out-of-cycle" inspection and testing. Although 1974 and older vehicles are not required to undergo the biannual emissions inspection and testing, they ARE required to have installed all original emissions equipment and be able to meet the state-established standards applicable to their year model.

Some folks think that the latter requirement was added as a result of recently enacted changes to the law which repealed the 30 year and older "rolling" exemption. That's not the case, though. While this requirement was included in the new law, it was simply a repetition of exactly what was in the law all along.

[Joe L.]

Addendum

By the way, as a 1965 model, the only emissions equipment which your car is required to have is a positive crankcase ventilation system.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Addendum

Thanks Joe;
I have a lot more confidence in your reply than the conflicting articles Ihave read in the San Diego Union.

[Rob A.]

Re: New California Emissions Testing

Joe,

I was just curious, if identified as a likely polluter, would the owner of one of these vehicles be required to purchase and install the original smog equipment without any limit on how much it might cost to obtain and install it?

[Mike M.]

Re: Addendum

Joe,
Does that mean the retrofit "smog" devices (to 60's model cars) as required by California in the mid to late 70's no longer have to be in place? If I remember correctly, they had to be fitted if the car was sold in order to pass the smog inspection. They generally consisted of a system that killed the vacuum advance; some systems also included a temperature switch to allow the vacuum advance to work if the engine began to overheat. In reality, most of these were removed immediately after the car was smog inspected.
Mike McCormick

[Joe L.]

Re: New California Emissions Testing

Rob-----

Absolutely YES!

[Joe L.]

Re: Addendum

Mike----

I am familiar with the system which you described; it used to be called "The Echlin Device", after the manufacturer of one of the state-approved devices. As far as I know, they no longer have to be installed on vehicles at change of ownership (if they were not installed previously). I don't know if the law requires these systems to be retuned to functionality if they have been removed. I don't think so, though. There is no record, as far as I know, of vehicles that they were previously installed on.

[John H.]

Re: Addendum

I think the folks on the Left Coast called those things "NOX Boxes"; every now and then we find remnants of them on old California 1st-generation Camaros.

[Joe L.]

Re: Addendum

John-----

Yes, the devices were supposed to control NOX emissions on cars which never were originally built with any sort of NOX control and came into requirement in California in the mid-70s, or so. They were a very early, crude, and totally unsophisticated attempt to do this on a retrofit basis. They caused so many problems with vehicle operation that I think California conveniently "forgot" about them. There still may be some reference or requirement for them in the law or the regs, but I don't think that it's enforced. They only had to be installed on cars at the time of sale. My 1969 never had one or was required to have one since I've owned it since new.

As far as NOX emissions are concerned, tailpipe tests never measured them until the "loaded mode" testing began to be "phased in" in the last several years.

[Roy B.]

Re: New California Emissions Testing

The system required drilling Too holes in the intake and ONE in the Air Cleaner ; just think how many were destroyed on Chevy and Corvette intakes and air Cleaners. Also required shaving a Cork up the Breather pipe draft tube.

[Joe L.]

Re: New California Emissions Testing

Roy-----

I think that you're referring to the retrofit PCV system requirement which came along in the 60s for cars not originally equipped with PCV (pre-1962 California-delivered cars). The NOX retrofit device came along in the mid 70s. It was an "electro-mechanical" device.

[Mike M.]

Re: Addendum

Joe,
I forget when the cut off date was but I remember having to install one on a '57 Chevy.
There were numerous manufactures beside Echlin. I originally liked the Carter device because it sent the temperature signal to an electronic relay which opened the vacuum advance. I would wire a switch in parallel to the relay and install it under the dash so the unit was getting the "too hot" signal and I got full time vacuum.
The craziest device (and I forget the name) consisted of two rubber plugs and a sticker which you placed on the dashboard. The rubber plugs replaced the vacuum line and the sticker said "Installation of this device can cause overheating, if overheating occurs, stop and allow the engine to cool" or some other words to that extent. This became the most popular device because it was cheap and made conversion to back to stock a 1 minute job.
Mike

[Kevin M.]

Re: Addendum

I had the green one that was spliced into the upper rad hose. It had three ports on it but I remember only two were used. The ports connected into the engines carburetor vacuum ports.

Kevin