How can I find out my local laws for emissions testing? I live in Chesterfield county, in Virginia.

 

I used to live there. You need everything. Can't legally leave out the cats or the muffler. But I used to always have a really low rating on my '94 302 Bronco. and I was running a 50 series flowmaster. you might be able to get a way with gutting your cats. I know a firends who did that to his mustang. and after I got checked I would remove my muffler and replace it with a makeshift straight pipe.

JON

 

I'm going to be moving to Virginia. My brother told me that they do a visual inspection where lives. Which is a problem for me... because my truck originally had Air Injection, but the new engine I put in, didn't have the pulleys or provisions for the injection system. Also, I don't have EGR working, but that can be fixed.

What's the best thing to do?

 

The place where i would always go never really looked at the engine. What they did was look at your registration and punch in your VIN # and by the the computer would know the legal limit of hyrdocarbons and what not for your computer. But for the saftey check is when the guy would look under the car and check for a muffler and cats.

JON

 

Hmmm... well, my truck is a '78, so they may look at it more. Besides, on the state safety check site, they list the air injection as one thing they'll check for.

 

Well, I checked with Virginia State Police, they said that I would fail if I didn't have all the emissions hardware it originally came with.

 

I live in Virginia and have never had problems with all the little emmisions stuff under the hood. They look for the big things. Air pump is one, especially if it's there with no belt. But I put the 351w in my 80 f150 and it didn't have a air pump and nothing has ever been said. Here is what I recommend:

1. DON'T GO TO A BIG CHAIN OR LARGE PLACE IN TOWN. This is the most important thing of all. I know some of you have to get a sniffer test like in northern Virginia, but if you can, try to find a little garage out away from town. If you work in the area, ask around the good-ole-boy network. They will know who is easier to get a vehicle to pass. This is the key to the whole thing.

2. Everybody seems to be hot on the convertors. I know this is a favorite modification, but even the good-ole-boys won't pass one without a convertor on it. Some will let you bend the rules a little and run dual cats, but most won't let you do anything to the original cat setup.
3. For the motor inspection, if you have the air pump system on but in some broken condition, try taking it off completely leaving no signs of it being there. Sometimes this works. Also, save your big ugly factory aircleaner, and make sure it's installed. This will be big enough to hide lots of things and give the engine a more "original" look.