Well for the first time since my late teens, I failed a smog inspection. The culprit?
Mishimoto CAC Tubes. I was not aware there were any CARB restrictions on CAC tubes. It baffles me the regulation these as its not a "performance" upgrade, i replaced pipes that were leaking with a quality product as a replacement.
Does anyone have experience with SMOG inspections for something like this?
Am I doomed to go junkyard hunting to throw in some old ugly tubes just to pass visual?

 

My hms? cac cold side for my alumaduty came with a carb eo sticker. So did my s@s dpk.

 

Well, it is no surprise that the CA officials are "experts" at parts that blow or suck hard...

My recommendation would be to purchase a set used that will put you back in good standing with your state government.

 

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Good thing my replacement exhaust manifold isn't to shiny....

 

Call your congressmen and tell them to support HB 4117. It's in committee and a longshot but has preemption and would put down CARB.

 

I’m sorry for the situation you’re in but your statement did make me chuckle. Unfortunately there may be a bit more truth in it than we’d like.

I’m biting my tongue about the whole situation. It drives me up the wall to see efficiency improvements being stopped. Obviously leaking tubes are not going to give you the cleanest and most efficient engine performance or mpg. And they’re just simple pipes. Just wish some common sense would come into play.

Best of luck sir. I’m with Sous. I’d probably just throw on some crusty old pipes for the inspection to make them happy. And maybe look for a new shop before the next test.

 

Yeah, I think i'm going to hit up ebay or some local junk yards for some plumbing for the intercooler. It really eats at me that i need to put in old crusty pipes that are EXACTLY THE SAME as the shiny clean ones just to pass smog.
Now im worried they will want me to put in a muffler too. Might be in the market for a new 4" muffler....

 

CARB regulators (a surprisingly small handful of career bureaucrats) have ranged far and wide beyond the state's legislative intent that empowers CARB's authority to manufacture and enforce regulations.

There is obviously nothing about a 3" diameter CAC tube designed to fit between Point A and Point B through a pre-established route dictated by the packaging constraints imposed by the surrounding engine bay... that would materially effect any parameter of emissions (NOx, HC, PM) threshold allowable when the engine was initially certified by Navistar International Transportation Corporation and issued an Executive Order by CARB to be legal for sale in California.

So really, what we are dealing with here is human power and control over others... not making the air cleaner.

If the goal was to make the air cleaner, then smog testing would not require citizens to drive around in circles for a 100 miles to (in the absence of knowing what constitutes a drive cycle) just to reset the onboard emissions monitors to Ready status.

If the goal was to make the air cleaner, then medium and heavy duty diesel engine testing would not require 3 preliminary pedal smashing accelerator snaps, then three more actual testing accelerator snaps, for smoke opacity testing every 6 months... plus the amount of driving to get to a testing station, and the amount of driving to warm up the engine in order to be more likely to pass the test. What a waste of fuel... polluting the air so as to not what... pollute the air?

The lofty goals of the good have been overregulated to the point of becoming a game.

So game on.

There are not more than a half dozen elements of emissions equipment that are identified on the engine control label, depending on model, model year, and transmission, for the '99-'03 7.3L.
DI = Direct Injection
TC = Turbocharger
CAC = Charge Air Cooler (which is what was called out in this case)
PCM = Powertrain Control Module

For some, the list stops here.

For others, the list continues...

DOC = Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (Often abbreviated as OC on the ECL)

These are the elements that a tester is obligated to verify as not being tampered with.

Since the cold side OEM CAC hot side tube was wrapped with foil lined insulation to reduce noise, applying a similar wrap to any CAC tube replacement is one way to avoid undue scrutiny or concern over a hollow tube having the same length, design, and dimension of the original tube... only prettier.

It is not a good idea to have a pretty engine compartment in California. The engine compartment should be dirty, to match the amount of dirtier air that CARB requires smog testers to breathe daily, in close proximity, due to the wholly unnecessary number of smog tests (twice per year in 2025, four times per year in 2027) that California now requires for diesel equipped trucks over 14K GVWR.

Any cute colors or aftermarket brand names emblazoned on boots or laser etched onto tubes and other aluminum parts (Mishimoto, RiffRaff, CNCfab, Sinister, etc) are a bad idea, unless said aftermarket company has applied for and received an Executive Order for the branded pretty part.

It doesn't have to make sense. It is a game. When playing Monopoly or any other bored (pun intended) game, the players don't make the rules. The game creator makes the rules, and the winning players prevail within that rule set.

Play to win.

 

does your truck require the snap (?) Test every 6 months?
I was in Paso when thet did all of our fleet. It almost killed me not going out there and killing him.
He would open the door hook up his obd2 cable, start the truck then hold the throttle wide open for a few seconds, dropt it to idle then do it again. Cold engine, less than 5 seconds of warm up time.

 

Mine does. Twice per year.

Hot Pocket's does not, and is every 2 years.

 

As mentioned,
I only have to smog every 2 years. My truck did not come with a cat from the factory as labeled on my valve cover emissions label.
All they do is a visual and hit the gas 1 or 2 times to verify it does not excessively smoke.( which it did with my old leaking cac tubes)
time to dirty up the engine bay, present her for the dog and pony show, and use the re-install as an opportunity to degrease and detail the engine bay i guess....
this is unreal...

 

@Hot pocket

I want to reiterate the suggestion that you foil wrap the CAC tubes, similar to stock.



Although the Banks CAC tubes are part of the Banks Powerpack system that has had a CARB approved Executive Orders issued for the last quarter of a century, as Banks was the first aftermarket producer of performance parts for the 7.3L diesel engine to seek and receive CARB approvals, years (actually decades) before other vendors in the game were forced to... I still wrapped the Banks tubes anyway, just to reduce the visibility of opportunities for one man fiefdoms to get hung up on.

 

IIRC,
our President has issued an order to eliminate CARB totally,
he said he will not allow California to set the requirements for the entire USA, and he is right.

I refuse to go inside the state of KaliStan...

 

They will get you on intercoolers too. Luckily my guy does not look at why my intercooler is painted black. They cant see the part tag anyway(it's a plate on the top side of the oem unit). Its buried in the cooling stack. But some will look. So be aware.

Also, you can have an unwrapped tube. Ford made them and riffraff sells them.

1C3Z6K769AA

So carb dudes can flake off if they get uppity about no foil.

 

It was not my intention to suggest that foil on CAC tubes is required to pass smog.

But if a tube is laser etched with a giant and obvious aftermarket brand name that does not have an EO for that part, it stands to reason that if the tube is wrapped, it would have to be entirely unwrapped to see what logo is on the tube.