Bought a 79 f-250, it impressed me because it started up instantly and ran smooth after sitting 3 months. I knew it was a worker, but the engine seemed solid.
After replacing the gas tanks, windshield, washer fluid bottle, radiator resevior, front transfer case seal, overhauling the brakes/master cylinder, replacing the speedometer gear, re-wiring it from head to toe and lastly.... minor work to please the inspectors.

There I sat and watched them poke and prod my nice truck at the emissions station. Then two techs came up, then a third. They all looked at the engine and pointed and whispered to each other.
The guy from the office was summoned. Then they all looked at it in awe.
"You didn't buy this around here, did you?", they asked.

Uhhhh... nope.

Soooo, on with the inspection.

Needless to say, 45 minutes later, I had my big PINK rejection sticker and an emissions paper that failed everthing but the gas cap test. Ohh, and my once working defrost blower seemed to not work.... to find out when I got home, the motor won't even work directly off the battery. Zippity dooo.
I whipped out my twanger and took a $30 leak... watched it flow right out my pocket. Easy money for them.

Lets see.... Who ever had this before me shoved a 302 in it, but failed to put back the smog pump, cannister, EGR valve, catalytic converter and a few other 4 letter word thingies I am still looking into.

As a newbie... heck ... that broke my heart. I am not about to spend $600 or more on emissions equip. Although, someone did suggest making a farm truck... but so much for hauling things out of my county. Dang Northern Va.

Anyhoot.... I want a truck to work when I want it to, not for me to work on it when it wants me to. Maybe thats the beauty of a 79 that I am somehow missing.

Ohh hum. It still is a big tuff guy truck and looks good hauling a trailer.

Thanks for the time to vent.

:-/

 

Hey I feel your pain, LOL. I bought a 79 F150 with a 302/C4 around November. I have as yet to crank it up and drive it. I'm rebuilding the motor right now. A quick survey of the emissions equipment found everything either unplugged or missing but it passed inspection like that in the year 2000 which was the last time it was on the road. It didn't even have a muffler. What it had was the hulled out shell of a muffler shoved up on the tail pipe.

I have chased down 6 other people driving 79 F150's around where I live and asked to survey their engines. So far I haven't found one yet that has any of the emissions stuff hooked up. They all have the air pumps completely removed and the rest of that stuff unplugged or removed and no converter and yet they are all passing inspection here. I have studied the vacuum diagrams for hours and tried to find other motors with all this hooked up to see if I could figure it out. I can't even find a diagram that sort of matches what mine sort of looks like it once may have had and no 2 other motors I've looked at were even similar. I have talked to our local cops who say just leave all that junk off and put some nice dual exhaust on it and it will be fine. The inspection stations can't or won't tell me what they expect to see on it either and I don't think they even know.

I have been in a quandry over what to do with mine. With my luck, about the time I get my truck running the rules here will change and I will have to somehow manage to gather up all this stuff and make it work. If that happens here there will be a lots of people in a world of hurt regarding their old vehicles and many can't afford to fix all that stuff.

 

I guess your wishing that it was a '78 eh? My f250 with 351m never had any smog pump or cats, just an egr.
My passed no problem (visual and sniffer)...rebuilt motor though, didn't complain about duals either!!!!

 

Well, count your blessings. At least your not in CA. I had all the smog equipment originally on my truck, and it still took me 4 months and $400 to get it to pass.

 

Well, all I did was get truck license plates at the DMV and walla... exempt from emissions. Who'd thunk that'd be this easy.


Thanks to my local good ol' boys.

ehh eh

 

you gotta Elaborate on that one... legal loophole??

 

Well.... it seems that Va has certain exemptions from having to comply with emissions. 'Farm use' tags will do it, but you are limited on how far you can 'legally' travel from the farm, and having a truck that has a gross wieght of 10,001 pounds or more. Well, having a 3/4 ton truck qualifies for that ( hauling a horse trailer ). Thats pretty much what I use the truck for. But that is a way to avoid those tests.

I only have a couple years until the truck is too old to test anyway. ( trucks that are 25 years or older are exempt as well. )

 

Move to Florida. Ahhh, the joys of no safety inspection or emissions. I actually live in Utah right now, but I mail my little card in each year and get a new sticker for 30 bucks. I even changed the title and registered it through the mail from Utah. My truck has never even been in the state of Florida. I just have my dad run down to the dmv for me and take care of it. It's great!

 

hey
i can TOTALLY relate to the inspection fiasco..i STILL cant get mine to pass--they fail me for excessive body rust, holes in the floor--holes in the bed, SHORT and LOUD exhaust system and too tall. seems that the idiots here dont know that the ole highboys came stock with factory 4'' blocks...ive fought with many an inspector over that! in addition, they even made comments to me like '....you drive this piec of *!*T on the road? amazes me because I LOVE my ford and i will NOT trade it for anything! So far, all i have managed to get are those EMERGENCY 48 hour inspections.....got to love NEW JERSEY-----NOTTTTTTTTTT !!!

 

My 78 F-150 is a strange one.

My parents bought it brand new and were the original owners. It had no EGR, Catalytic Converter, smog pump, charcoal cannister, not even a return line to the fuel tank. To top it all off it came with an oil bath air cleaner right from the factory.

So far, I haven't seen another one like it. You should see the guy try to take top off the air cleaner and look for a paper filter at the inspection station. One guy actually took the air cleaner all the way off and poured oil all over himself once. It was pretty hilarious. He had never seen anything like it.

I wonder what they would do with a truck like mine if it required a smog check?

 

Keller the oil Bath is an Option!! Very RARE indeed!!

Most all 78 F250's did not have emissions. Mine is all stock and has none.


So the confusions begin

 

I bought a 75 F-100 that a previous owner had transplanted a 460 into. The county I live in is the only county in the state (NM) that requires emissions testing.(They threw out the safety check as discrimination against poor people) The guy I bought it from lived in this county but his mailing address was from the next county over so he escaped E-Testing. I went to the testing station and asked them what I had to have. They told me I had to have the origonal smog equipement. I asked him what that was he looked in a couple books, called someone and told me it needed an air pump. I talked with him a bit and he commented that I could rig something up.
After considering all the options like getting an older truck that was exempt (early 75 and older)or retitleing this one somehow, I decided to go for the air injection system. I have the exhaust manifolds with the air injection ports, one came with the air manifold,and a pump from an 80 something 460. Still need a pump bracket and the rest of the plumbing. She's sitting now waiting for a D60 rearend and new driveshafts, but I sure would like to get her on the road. (legally)

 

Out here in 'ol Montana,we don't have any emission stations or smog police.We do have,however,20 below temps and 2 feet of snow.Still,I don't think I'd trade.

 

Hey all. You need to move to MA.. pre 84 is emissions exempt. I feel bad for the guy with the 302 that needed all that stuff.. Mine is all sitting on a shelf.. 79 F100 XLT 2wd.. 460/c6 3.55:1 rear end. It originally was a 302.. Then we put in a 351W. I remember taking it to get a sticker, and the guy (whom I do know, but not WELL), said to me "Hey, this has cats on it?"
"Yeah" (previous owner had generic CATCO cats with dual exhaust)
he says "Take em off, you don't need em"
I can live with that.

:P