CA smog equipment
 

I happen to live in the last county in California where periodic smog clearance is not required after purchase. Given that good news, I'm considering stripping off some of that junk on my 89 CRX in order to increase milage/performance. Anyone have any suggestions as to the best way to proceed? What should go and what should stay?

Please leave the smog alone. Work on technique first. That's where you will get the biggest bang for the buck and the most improvement. Check out the 100+ hypermiling tips.

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Hmmm, I suppose. But what is the difference between a 49 state car and a California car?

Yeah, leave the emissions equipment alone. I get ~70% improvement over EPA with driving technique. I doubt you'll see a 5% improvement from removing smog equipment, and you may not see any at all. I remember the horrible air quality in CA in the 1960s. Don't take any steps in the wrong direction to take us back to that kind of air quality.

The emissions equipment is there to increase efficiency, reduce combustion temps, and keep A/F ratios at stoichiometric. In some cases you might be able to gain a little peak horsepower, at the cost of drastically reducing FE and drastically increasing emissions. You won't find any easy efficiency gains unless there's something drastically wrong with your car, like a plugged catalyst, or by doing a complete conversion to a lean-burn or stratified-charge system.

Power but in your honda not much,, You don't haveta pass smog where you live in cali?

I belive you have one extra catalitic converter and oxygen sensor (other 49 have one cat on obd1 cars, and california obd2 cars have 3cats and 3 O2 sensors where as all others have 2 of both. Search google for <<non foulers>>.

Removal of cats will cause your engine run rich- worser mpg.

You might have a lower temp thermostat and your ECU might be different, other then that it should have the same catalytic converter right up by the exhaust manifold, and the EGR valve might be different but I'm not sure how, other then that, most of if should be the same or pretty close.
with a 2nd generation CRX (HF?) you should do pretty well, make sure you have light weight wheels (HF, VX, HX or honda Insight wheels) good narrow tires, change your tranny fluid! and give the car a full tune up.

A quick search implies it's just the ECU. Swapping to a federal ECU may allow you to pick up a few mpg and it would still be legal.

just curious if thats for just hondas.

there are plenty of odb2 cali cars that dont have 3 cats, in fact my cali only odb2 car has 1 cat stock, 2 02 sensors.

Can anyone validate that where he lives in cali he doesn't have to pass smog? Cause i thought smog was statewide in Cali

California smog check is definately required for every vehical registered in california. It is also a felony to register a vehical in another state if california is your primary residence. (in other words, if you have a house in cali, and a house in az, you register your car where your mail goes/license is)


i have had several convos with several people at both the BAR and CARB. Smog is required everywhere in cali.

in addition, not only is the smog check stricter here then anywhere else in the us, so are the mileage helping modifications as well.

Alternator deletes are illegal. Hot air intakes other then stock or CARB numbered aftermarket units are illegal. Electric water pumps are illegal on cars like mine, whose water pump is driven by the timing belt.

Basically, anything that messes with the engine, transmission, or engine management/smog equipment, and doesnt have a CARB number, is illegal. This includes stupid things like matching an engine to a tranny that was never offered with that engine stock. Like putting the economy tranny with the dohc neon engine, like i have done.

There reasoning is that they dont care about global warming. (thats straight from the horses mouth, from the CARB). They only care about pollution that causes cancer in humans. While lean burn saves gas, and reduces co2, its illegal on any vehical that didnt come with it because it increases nox emissions. They also told me that sometimes switching from an automatic tranny to a better geared stick can increase emissions. Yep, and he stuck to that even after i explained that the difference in trannys would allow me to burn 750 gallons a year, instead of 1000 gallons (unfortunately i must drive a lot for work, im currently at 600 gallons a year, or 50 mpg average).

A biennial check is required for vehicles in these areas. If someone isn't in those areas they only require a smog check if something is sold IIRC.
I've talked w/ a couple state refs and people (Totally nuts!) at CARB too. Like you mentioned, according to CARB, everything is illegal unless it has an EO number, but from the mouth off a state ref, they aren't going to pull apart a transmission in order to count the teeth to prove it isn't stock, and I doubt they would care about an alternator delete. The same goes for a bunch of other mods. Just because something isn't legal doesn't mean the state can enforce compliance is any reasonable way. The state refs will enforce obvious compliance issues, maybe check part numbers, but they probably won't care if a trans isn't stock, an injector pump hasn't been rebuilt/set as per manufacturer's CA spec, and alla that.

Do you have any proof of this? Everything I've read says that only "emissions-sensitive" parts are covered by CARB, and neither alternators or water pumps are emissions-sensitive. (Otherwise, you'd see tons of aftermarket alternators with EO numbers.) Engines are certainly covered, but I seriously doubt that transmissions would be.

the tranny issue does matter if you go from an auto to a stick, since most computers are tranny specific, and most of the time (in my case) are programmed with the vin. If i go in for smog with a vin numbered car for an auto, and have a stick, it would show up on the computer and auto-fail me, reguardless of what the inspector wants to fail.

according to the CARB director which i spoke with on the phone, alternators are considered a drivetrain mod, since they affect voltage to the engine management, and lower voltage can increase emissions. He said more then likely i could get away without getting caught, but if i did, it carrys the same fine as any other CARB violation. Im ignoring him on that.


Transmissions are definately covered, anything that can possibly affect smog is covered, which includes transmissions.

Im ignoring most of his words, and will change things at smog time if needed, even if my originaly "illegal" changes are to improve smog