Smogging in Sacramento County

[bake74]

     Glad to hear you got it taken care of, just curious what shop did you use in Sac. ?

[CA Big Red]

Hey bake74, without grabbing my receipt, it was John Ellis Garage off of I Street downtown.

They took the time to really look into this with me.


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[NCali]

I just went through the smog Nitemare in Sacramento.One of the biggest problems I ran into was finding a smog shop to smog a 1987 305 TBI. This truck has a completely stock engine and nothing has been removed , modified or missing from the smog system and I knew of no reason this truck should not pass. I went to several test and repair star stations . The smog techs were reluctant to do the smog because the state is grading the performance of the star stations and a failed test reduces their score.
  I finally convinced Bob on franklin blvd that the truck would pass. It passed the emission test at $58.00 but I had a piece of heater hose running from the valve on the back of my smog pump to the air cleaner. THAT IS A WATER HOSE , NOT AN EMISSION HOSE. 
 The smog tech saw that as soon as he opened the hood but the LAW does not allow him to tell me that it would fail the visual because that hose was not an emission hose.
 so I could correct it prior to spending $58.00, instead They wanted the price of the hose , $72.00 for an hour labor (putting the hose on) and another $58.00 for running the test all over again.  Of course failing it the first day cost me another day off of work
  I dont mind complying with the smog test but every time you have to get a test you are at the mercy of a smog shop doing everything they can to get as much money as they can out of you
  The last time I looked, that heater hose was made  out of rubber , just like an emission hose , but they made an extra $150.00 by failing the truck the first time.
  Just a few pointers : make sure that every vacuum hose is on and in the correct location,  That your air cleaner has that little filter on the smog hose, And that flex hose from the exhaust manifold to the air cleaner is the correct size and clamped at both ends

[jwill226]

Before I get flamed because something I am saying has already been covered I didn't read everything but this is what I know:

I am currently working on smoging a 78 350 k10 in CA.  This is what I have learned.  There might be some different rules for different counties I am in Del Norte so what I'm saying is true here.

First off you can smog in any county as long as you have it done in CA.  So if you know it will pass with someone else go there.

I also have a Holly on mine.  I am in the process of having a Quad rebuilt so I can change that back.  This is required regardless unless you have a CARB sticker and all the needed vacume ports on your aftermarket carb.

CATs are required on most K10s.  I just had one installed on my single exhaust.

My smog guy says if the sticker under the hood is visable they have to follow it.  This year of 350 in Chevy trucks sold in CA came with 3 smog packages: 

Some where federal  all they need is the stock or CARB aproved carb, intake, fuel canaster (can't remember the proper name should be behind your drivers side headlight),and all the proper vacume lines hooked up.  If the sticker is missing the smog tech can assume its federal.

Some although more rare came with everything for federal + egr and CATs

A majority came with everything listed above plus the smog pump setup.

My smog tech was very clear that if the sticker is missing and there is not a manafold with ports for a smog pump system then they can't prove its not federal.  There is no way they can look at the VIN and tell what smog equipmenmt it came with.  Also where it was made has nothing to do with it.  Mine was not made in CA but it was built for CA smog requirments.

I hope this info will be helpfull to someone.

[CA Big Red]

jwill226, I haven't fully explained how I got my passed, but there are a couple of considerations in addition to what you've mentioned above. 

For instance, I passed with a Holly, headers and no catalytic converters.  How?  I was considered a federal heavy duty half ton.  I don't have any stickers to speak of, my GVWR is 6200 and the VIN shows it as a K10. 

I had to add the proper vacuum lines and heat stove from my header to the air filter.  He changed my timing and I passed.

Of course, it took 3 shops and a lot of research on my part to get to this conclusion, but I eventually got smogged and can feel good about it. 

While there was a few items (I can't recall now) that my truck had on it that convinced my mechanic that it was a federal truck (I think it was related to the fuel tanks), but the most convincing proof was the documentation I had on its first point on sale, which was Pullman, WA.  I'll be holding onto that because it is the only document that remains that helps to confirm that it was built as a federal truck. 

I'm already getting ready for my next smog... 23 months, 15 days and counting...

[jwill226]

Glad you got it smogged.  dealing with that can be a pain.  Mine was a CA truck.  It was taken to OR and most of the smog equipment was done away with when the engine was rebuilt/replaced (not sure witch) .  Now I bought it and am bringing it back to CA.

One thing I have going for me is where I live in CA I only have to smog once when I first get a vehicle.  I don't have to worry about it as long as I own it after that.  So once I get all this straigtened out I'll just remove what I don't want and box it up nice and neat for future use if I ever need to sell the truck.  I can demand more for one that will smog first shot.

The reason my smog guy was telling me that with out the sticker they can assume its federal is because I have a sticker but its completely unreadable so its the same as not having one basicly.  He said because he can't tell for sure what it said he cant assume what it is and force me to get every little smog part for it.

Hopefully on Wednesday I'll have this all done. its been a month and a half now of tracking down every thing I needed.

[bake74]

     jwill226, between you and CA BIG RED you have covered most of Ca smog requirements for our trucks, the only difference is there is 6 counties I believe in Ca where, if you live in you only have to smog when a vehicle is transferred (link is earlier in discussion) so that means no smog every 2 years, only when you buy one. 
     I really wish I lived in one of those counties.

[audrima]

I would like to thank you for this post, it convinced me that I never going to move to CA. $12.99 a year for basic inspection and no smog, I'm keeping my WV resident status. ^_^ I am glad you got it all fix and sorted out.


Mariah

[73fourbyguy]

If you didn't get it smogged  yet send me a message, I live in Sac. County and might be able to help you out.


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[bake74]

If you didn't get it smogged  yet send me a message, I live in Sac. County and might be able to help you out.


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     I didn't know you live in Sac County.  We are getting quite a few members on here around the sac area and bay area.  Even some up 80 and 50 north of Sac.  Glad that you are here.

[Dr_Snooz]

Dude, STOP taking your truck into shops and asking how much they want. They don't know about smog and can't get you legal. They can only hem and haw and quote big numbers without any guarantees. I've failed a lot of smog tests and the quotes are always very, very big and open-ended. Even if the problem is nothing more than some carb fine-tuning, you will get a very big quote and a lot of stammering about what went wrong. Even if you pay them for the work, they don't promise to get you past, only that they will keep spending your money until you pass or go broke. You won't have anything left by the time they're through with you.

The problem is that Cali smog is not rational. It's a bunch of crony-capitalist, special interest handouts all thrown together in a big, smelly pile. Nobody understands it anymore and there is no way to fulfill it honestly. Seriously. Why does CARB allow fracking to go completely unregulated, the Detroit big-three to repeatedly get passes on emissions and fuel economy targets, and highly toxic Chinese slave goods to enter the country freely? Yet they'll hammer you if you fail a stupid smog test. If you're poor, they'll harass you and take your car away so you can't get to work anymore. Far better to have you on welfare than out working and contributing. There's no rhyme or reason to this. There needs to be a SERIOUS house-cleaning at CARB and the DMV, but until then, we have to make do as best we can.

The shops only know how to perform the smog test, so don't ask any more of them. Right now, the test consists of two parts: a visual inspection and a dyno emissions inspection. The visual inspection is very simple. The tech looks at his list (from the state) of the smog components that shipped with your truck. Those will be things like a cat, EGR, air pump, etc. They are big bolt-on items that are easy to spot. They are NOT things like valve sizes or throttle butterfly angles, or anything like that. These same components are listed on your last smog test paperwork and on the plate on your air filter (if you still have it). The tech will look to see that those components are installed in the vehicle and that they appear to be functional. If they are, he will most likely check the box and move on without further investigation. He's supposed to make sure that there aren't any aftermarket parts installed without a CARB sticker and that the engine is original, CA smog specific, etc. Remember, however, that he has not received extensive training on what to look for and is probably being paid way too little to care. If you don't have any aftermarket logos showing and the guy isn't an expert on your specific vehicle, you can sneak a lot through.

The next portion is the dyno test. As long as the truck blows clean at 15 and 25 MPH, you pass this part of the test. If the carb is tuned well and the truck is in top running order, you stand a very good chance of passing this part of the test. It also helps if all those smog components listed above are actually working. If you aren't sure, do a tune up and change your oil. Then get a good A/F meter and make sure your fuel mix is dead on 14.7 at 15 and 25 MPH.

The test only measures three gases: HC, CO and NOx. If you're too rich, you'll have high HC. If you're too lean, you'll have high NOx. If the engine is old and neglected, you'll have high CO. Remember that all those smog components mentioned above also help to bring these numbers down, so make sure they are working as best you are able. Every smog test report will have the levels of these gases listed on it. Though it's difficult to read, it provides valuable information about how close you were to failing and where to tune things up. The simple fact that you were passing in SB leads me to believe that you can pass in Sac without any trouble. Just play it right.

I put an aftermarket carb and intake on my truck. They were not CA approved. I hooked up all the OE smog stuff to them, covered the logos, tuned it and took it in and passed. The parts were even shiny and new in an otherwise very old and dirty engine bay. I still passed. The truck blew up a few weeks later, so I only have the one test to go on, unfortunately, but it passed.

Take your truck to a new shop that doesn't know you and have it tested. I'd recommend that you request a pre-test first. It is basically a full smog test but it doesn't get reported to the state. You want to do this because if you do the full test and fail as a gross-polluter, a lot of extra bureaucracy gets involved at that point, and you don't want that. (A good shop will monitor the test as it progresses and pull the plug before the reporting if your numbers look too bad. If you find a good shop, stick with them.) If the pre-test goes well, then do the full test. You'll be legal without bankrupting yourself.

For the record, I'm a committed environmentalist. Unlike CARB, however, I advocate real and sustainable solutions to environmental problems. I want ethanol and methanol powered cars and an end to the oil cartel. I want the fuel-saving technologies currently rotting away in Exxon's vaults to be released into the public domain, and I want investigations and prosecutions into the mysterious deaths of innovators who threatened the oil monopoly. CARB just dishes out more bureaucracy and legalese while heaping impossible goals on the poor and vulnerable. They can go jump in a lake.