I went today, and apparently, 1976 vehicles that come due before march 1st should be exempt. you may have to ask for it, the guy that waited on me wasnt aware of "the memo" and had to ask a supervisor, the supervisor might have wondered how I knew about the memo, but agreed. I guess the real test will be next feb 28th when it comes due again...

 

and we do the chassis dyno test here, and my 1970 390 passes better than necessary for a 76 390. in fact, the exhaust pipe I installed 12 yrs ago, is still clean metal inside, kinda like a new car.

and I totally agree about heavy industry getting away with a lot. but as industry decreases, and cars get cleaner, the hydrocarbon counts go up. why? I have to think increased flights into our airports. I think that air travel needs to be cut back. planes should only fly when full. hundreds of half-empty planes flying around is stupid if we really care about emissions.

high speed electric rail would do more to clean the air than the current smog check system in my opinion.


so I still say its much more about politics, than clean air.

 

Like I said, there's more to it than just the emissions test...

Anyways, you're right, a HUGE amount of the pollution is caused by airplanes. Also heavy industry, and all the oil refineries off the Monterey coast. But, what you need to remember is that most of the states on the eastern seaboard have airports that are just as, if not more, active, and on average a bit more heavy industry, and their smog problems are not anywhere NEAR ours. You can say all you want, but actual smog(NOx emissions, not just HC/CO) is caused almost entirely by road vehicles.

Note that I said 'road vehicles'. What does this mean? Trucks, as in 18-wheelers. Diesel motors put out nearly 0 HC, and almost that in CO, but they put out LOADS of NOx, which is what forms the visible brown layer in LA. The reason for this is due to the diesel combustion process; the chamber reaches VERY high combustion temps, way above 2500 degrees, and so they put out a lot of NOx.

Don't get me wrong, cars do this also. These two together, however, are why California's smog is so bad. All the trucks we have, combined with more cars than any other state.

Now you're absolutely right about the politics bit. If we ACTUALLY wanted to clean the air, we'd outlaw internal combustion engines and require electric vehicles by 2010. GM already has an S-10 that runs on a hydrogen fuel cell as a prototype; only problem is the cell/converter assembly takes up the whole bed!

Now if you REALLY care about the state of our smog, how the smog check hurts your interests, want to complain about something, etc, there's really a very simple thing you can do: write 2 dozen letters to your state assembly-person, and send off 2 per month. This is how the legislators know when they've gone too far. If everyone starts complaining about smogging cars and says 'hey, let's clean up those pesky airplanes, big rigs, and factories instead of charging the Joe Schmoe consumer' then they'll listen. (They want to get voted in again, right?)

This has been a fun thread; whd507, what I'd recommend for your truck is to get an address in Oregon and register it there, that way you won't need a California smog. Good luck.

 

the east coast has their smog blown out to sea. our weather comes from the sea, and blows it inland. also here in the central valley and LA we have inversion layers caused by being in a valley. the northeast has the advantage there. we also have hotter-drier air in the summer.


and my truck is now legal thanks to a loophole... I'll take it!!

 

no smog, better gas, much cheaper.


now to battle rust instead...

 

Moved to Missouri???
I have found the best place to look for rustless parts is down south, east of LA. At least until they're all crushed. Ooooh what a terrible thought. Looks like your a little far now though.
Congrats on finding your loop hole.

 

non-op makes the DMV happy, but does not satisfy local governments who require all vehicles to be currently registered/licensed/insured/running at all times. to the local authorities a non-op vehicle is just an excuse to confiscate it to sell as scrap.

now happily moved to Missouri, I can register all my entire fleet for two years for less than one year cost there for just my F-600, plus my insurance dropped in half.

my 76 was smog exempt, on a loophole,but it wasn't worth it, so we moved.

 

They mostly go on the VIN and EIN!...Period. It is possible to get an exemption, but most will find that it is not worth the time. However, if you want to go through the hoops, it is not impossible.

Cali does has the most strict laws, but the rest of the states are not far behind. Some just have it based on populated counties right now.