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Smog? Mine's a '76? Story of My Life...

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Sleepy

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So here I am, out in beautiful Southern California, and my great little TR is officially 30 years old. Up until 3 years ago, my restoration plans were pretty much put on hold, knowing that I could do whatever I wanted to my TR's motor in 2006, because the 30 year California smog window would have lapsed. Then, in 2004, all of this changed. California legislators determined that classic cars were too much of a smog producing group, and made 1975 the last year of smog exemption. (sarcasm/on I guess the 12 Sunday drives a year I plan on doing with her are linked directly to the shrinking of the polar ice caps. sarcasm/off)

I should have known, I'm always caller number 11 after caller number 10 just won the concert tickets.

Anyway - I'm rambling. I was hoping some of you with similar smog-related irritations could help me construct a list of things I can/can not do to this motor I am rebuilding. Goal: To boost HP as much as possible. If that means spending a weekend or more tweaking things right before my smog visit every two years and another weekend to put it back right again, I'm fine with that.

The thing that irritates me about this most is that even when she was running and completely stock, the attendants used to have to turn her lean so badly to pass that she wasn't drivable. One year, after i 'passed' I had to have her towed home so I could let her breathe again.

Thanks for any help you can provide. The motor is in pieces now, and I need the help.

(P.S. Now if any of you work for the CARB, my name is Joe Smith and I live in, um, Oakland. Yeah - That's it)
 
Indiana may be a "fly over" state, but boy do I love the non-BS approach to emissions testing (or lack thereof) here.

But to be helpful....

How about rebuilding it stock, and make sure you build it for emissions. or maybe you could get a set of ITB's from TWM, and run modern engine management, such as Haltech ($$$$) or Megasquirt (cheap)

here's the throttle bodies:

https://www.twminduction.com/ThrottleBody/tr6_fi.html

or you can troll around for a pre-'75 TR6 that is a parts car with a title....and maybe magically make your car a Pre-'75?
 
I have really been considering looking for such a donor vehicle, but I guess I'm not ever sure where to begin there... Thanks for the link!

(BTW - I'm originally from the mid-west /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I'd rather "drive-through" the U.S., than "fly-over" it. My dad was born in Youngstown!)
 
I have made this snide remark once before in a similar situation: It might be cheaper for you to move to Arizona.
 
OK, finally got the PM to work. i screwed up before and didn't put a subject line in it, so it didn't go
 
You could always disconnect it until smog testing time and then hook it back up. I'm sure there are some quick disconnect thingys out there that would make it easier. Of course I would never break the law myself. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Well, there's always the two engine approach. One for driving, and one to appease the CARB gods. I was actually in the process of doing this when my '65 Sprite was declared exempt by Sacto.
Jeff
 
As far as I can tell, after reading up on the Ca emissions testing regs on their DMV and CAB websites, there isn't a whole lot you can do:

Firstly, you must have all of the original emissions gear for that year car. This is where I would fall down - I may end up moving to Ca in the new year, and have a '76 with all the emissions gear ripped out - althought seem to be ways around this that require getting a "pass" each year if the people at some Bureau or another can't track down the parts that are needed in-state.

Secondly, it appears that any mods have to be with "approved" parts - i.e. they have been submitted by the manufacturer to some Ca office or another for approval. So some of the smaller companies we deal with may not be on this list.

Any moves afoot out there to petition for the recall of the 30-year rule?

Cheers,
Mark
 
Sleepy, check your PM's again. Found some info out for you.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
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