• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Emissions testing

Share this page

Jaybird,
I for one am very interested to know if Emma passes. Living in this lovely state of Illinois I know that they go out of their way to make life difficult!
I had to do a wheel dyno test one time with a Ford Probe. The tester power shifted the car and tore the diff apart. They claimed pre-existing condition and refused to pay for damages!/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cryin.gif
Do you know what year the testing cutoff is? That is if there is a cutoff.
 
Too bad you're not in N.Y.
Being a licenced N.Y. inspector, I'd get ya hooked right up. And I woulden't have to break the law to do it.
Of course I'm upstate (no sniffer) and anything as old as most of our beloved LBCs are "Safety only" inspections anyway.
I know, I know, Enjoy it while I can. You know I am /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
JB if you're car is stock for 75 is shouldn't have a Cat and there isn’t a law in the land (even in Illinois) that can force your car to meet emissions standards that didn’t exist at the time your car rolled off the production line. So it is my view that if you tune & set it up to “factory specs” you should pass the tail pipe test without any difficulty (cat or no cat).

But I seem to recall that you’d planed on replacing the ZS single carb with a set of SUs. Did you make the change yet? If so I think you should be ok as long as you retained the smog pump & air rail. If this is what you did you might be able to set your car to the factory specs for the last year that used the duel SU setup then back it off a little as has been suggested to lean it out.

The timing issue is another story and has me worried. If they don't check under the bonnet that’s great. But even if they don't – the timing can have an unpleasant affect the reading of your tailpipe test. I'd look at what is causing the erratic idle then make sure you carb is sorted out properly.

Good Luck!
 
I absolutely LOVE your tag line Lawguy! Jack
 
Since the 75s never had a cat except in California, that info "should" be in the states database. One never knows. These so called emission test programs are designed to force the purchase of "new" cars, and as usual, no thought was given to the hobbiest. GRRRRRR!!!! If you can borrow an air pump set up, you can make it pass with flying colors. Find someone with a CO machine. (A friendly garage or a home unit)Set the CO% to around 4.5 with the air pump disconnected. Just take the pump outlet hose off of the air rail. If all is well the HC ppm should be pretty low at that setting. Connect the air pump, and as if by magic, the CO and HC should drop right into specs. It is also wise to change the oil before the test. Then, after you pass, write your state legislators and bitch really loud. Here in the peoples paradise of Maryland,we also have what they call the "treadmill" test. This is where some unqualified monkey gets into your car, straps it down, and beats the crap out of it on a chassis dyno. I refuse to let them touch my Jaguars. I flat refuse, and they will finally relent and just do the tailpipe test, probably to just make me go away. They also insisted that they test my 87 Audi quattro on the dyno. The moron strapped my all wheel drive car on a rear wheel drive dyno, and blew up the trans. The state forked up 5700.00 (out of petty cash no less) and paid me to fix my own car. Now, the only car I will even let them touch is my Chevy truck. Even the finest state monkey can't seem to break that.
 
[quot]Since the 75s never had a cat except in California, that info "should" be in the states database.

[/ QUOTE ]

It is - early this am I got a phone call from a guy in California who I've been providing parts for...he has a '75 Federal car (not California) that he was having problems passing emissions...I've been sending him emissions parts off & on...suggested he install a cat even though it wasn't needed...he felt he'd fail the visual...when he got to the inspection shop, he said they pulled up a diagram of what his car should look like & told him it didn't need a cat but that they wouldn't penalize him for it....he barely passed California test, but passed (he still has enrichment issues with his Zenith)

...So, as of 7am this morning I know Calfornia, at last, can pull up a diagram of what any car produced in emissions times should look like!
 
Illinois will give a waiver if a minimum amount (I think $400) is spent trying to meet specs providing all required pollution plumbing is installed. You need to provide documentation that you spent that much.

Also, I have heard (rumor only) of at least one owner who swapped out engines with one known to pass for the test only and then put the first engine back in. Please note I am not suggesting you bypass the law.

Mike
 
I'm not above bypassing the law, but dang, I don't want to swap out engines either, just to pass!

I'm keeping mind of all the options here. After she's tested, we'll see where I have to go from there. Hopefully NO WHERE!!!

Thanks you guys! Again you've come through for me!
 
Well I have just been listening to this thread.However, IMOP the fly in the ointment is; a LBC car received for emissions test may be capable of passing provided the "Monkey" at the test facility knew how to tune it,which in most cases he does not!.---Keoke
 
In Illinois, the testers just stick a sniffer up the tailpipe and take readings. They are not allowed to look under the hood (unless you are asking for a waiver).
I put them in the same category as the grease monkeys at the quick lube places.
 
That's not exactly the catagory I put them it. It's more the same catagory as the monkeys at the zoo. IF you fail inspection (and this is just emissions, not a saftey inspection), THEN they start opening the hood and really poking around.

Maybe I should take Emma topless when we go? He'll be distracted and want to go for a ride in December with the top down!
 
I may be wrong about the price and length of the plates, but the limitations are not that bad. Theoretically, you can only drive the car to and from events and to and from the mechanics. In reality, I have never heard of anyone being pulled over for breaking that rule. In my club, seveal members have antique plates and use the car for daily driving in the Chicago area.

Oned of the members, being slightly paranoid, carries a number of MG magazines (national and local) with him. He says there is always some event he can tell the officer he is going to.

As far as alcohol, go to HOme Depot or the like and get a gallon of denatured alcohol. It is ethanol, adulturated so we cannot drink it.
 
Florida "Emissions Testing" was much the same: You pass, pay up an' pi** off. You fail, th' monkey wants access to th' engine (this was my Alfa)... "hmmm... headers!" "Noooo, that's th' factory cast iron manifold." (monkey slides mirror under car):"That's not a catylitic converter!" (Dr E gettin' impatient with 'Bubba') "Ahh... yes it is. It's Italian, they make 'em smaller.".... Off he goes like a shot to run to "daddy"... Supervision emerges from The Office, promptly tells me I need a "letter" from the "dealer" to certify I have a CAT converter on it. I tell him ther ARE no dealers in the US anymore... "Get one from another shop then."... Whole thing was a farce. IMO the worker drones were the dregs of the semi-literate, wasting tax dollars and oxygen. Don't jump my butt for that, I tend to generalise... I'm sure there was at least *one* MIT grad somewhere in th' state-wide system shovin' probes up tailpipes, right? Or mebbe a proctocologist who just wasn't getting any job satisfaction doin' human tailpipe testing.

That's as PC as I get on th' subject.
 
wait... when the heck did FL start doing tail pipe testing? I haven't been gone THAT long.... or is just the Tampa/St. Pete and other metro areas?
 
Janel,..you or someone you know most likely knows someone who works in an inspection station,..throw him a few bucks and be done with it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I had to do that for years with some of the junkers I drove, and refused to repair /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif


Good Luck,

Jerry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Not done here in the Panhandle, run what you brung is our moto.
 
Jerry! Heya!!! These are state-run inspection centers, with state employees (if you get my drift) I've already talked to everyone I know with LBCs around here. There's no slipping a few bucks.

Rosa...head to the pub, got a question...
 
Back
Top