MotorHead

I was hairassed by my local police ( after driving my Vette around town for 15 years ) last year for not having the smog stuff it came with originally.

I thought fine, maybe I'll sell mine and get a 69-70 or something like that. But know I just find out even the '68's had smog stuff.

What about other cars like Chevelles, or Nova's or whatever, I want a car I can do whatever I want to it. Did these older cars have smog stuff too in 1968-70 ?

zwede

The clean air act was passed in 1968, so if you don't want any smog requirements you need to go back to 1967 or older.

But '68-'74 didn't have much in the way of smog stuff. '75 was the first year for a catalytic converter.

Derrick Reynolds

Well, it looks like you are a Canuck, so my experience here in the states won't help you much. However, the regs here vary widely state to state, so I would advise contacting your local DMV and find out what your local regs are, or maybe other Canucks will chime in.

BTW, in the great state of NJ, they don't care about no stinkin' clean air act and want to stick a hose up my tailpipe every two years regardless of the year of my car before they will let me have an inspection sticker.

MotorHead

I don't need to pass emissions testing because my Vette is over 20 years old but it is still supposed to have all the emission stuff. They are basically cracking down on the ricer crowd but I got caught up in the middle of it .

MrJlr

I have a '74 AND I live in California....! But.....my car is exempt from smog because of it's age....I removed all the smog equipment from it (I still have it....) It will never have to be smogged...and a beat cop is not a qualified expert to tell me what came on the car 36 years ago...

So unless they change the laws...no smog for me !

MotorHead

The cops phoned the environment guys and they came out and they new their stuff. Pegged everything that was missing or incorrect

You may not have to pass emissions testing but may still need the stuff on the car like I do

KeyWestJack

Aren't you glad big bother is there for you.

Lee H

Well not so fast, you are only exempt from the bi-annual inspections. You are still legally required to maintain the smog equipment. There are a few things that trigger a smog check on the pre 76s like a change in ownership, or if you get sniffed by one of the mobile smog detectors and it is high you could get a letter from the state requiring you to get it smogged.

Mike Ward

This appears to be an Ontario only issue, so the laws of other provinces are also irrelevant. From what I understand, the equipment must be present but there's no verification that it actually does anything other than take up space.

Pretty well all cars from the mid 60s onwards had some sort of smog gear. Why not just get the correct smog stuff and put it back on? It doesn't hurt performance .

volition

Why not just place the emissions items on the car to give the appearance that they are installed and working.

You can have the EGR and that mess of vacuum hoses going to the canister stuck on the engine easily. You don't have to have them hooked up or working, just on there so they won't bother you.

For example my car has an EGR tack welded to the side of my non-emissions intake manifold. When they check, I have an EGR as far as they know.

eastltd

What's on the list they are looking for? CATS, EGR, A.I.R. PCV & Vapour Canister.

MotorHead

Can you post or send me a pic of the EGR tack welded on.

I already bought an older vapour canister, it only has two hose fittings compared to the 5 or 6 on mine

MotorHead

It is just a one fine for the pollution stuff, under the category of "non compliant emission equipment" or something like that. It could be all or any one of the the emissions parts missing.

They can take the plates and you have to put all the stuff back on before you can plate it again. But they let me go, the environment guy said it way to nice a car to tow away. Maybe not so lucky next time

mrvette

'67 was the last of the clean years, before all the .gov emissions crap...

'68-72 are workable, 71-72 suffered from lower comp ratios for most cars, '70 was last year for the olde tyme hi compression engines....

trick is the olde tyme engines, today should have been or need be rebuilt to more modern standards as today's gas is totally bad news for them...between the missing lead and the ethanol, it's a mess....

so the lower comp, but to stay away from 73-74 because that was EGR years and even lower comp ratios...'75+ was all the era of the cat *** trophic converters....the old restrictive types that cost another 20+ hp off the engines...although the later engine did have more tolerance for unleaded gas.....

the application of various smog devices like the most obvious smog pump are your largest problem, the evap canister is a no sweat item...easy to do or fake....no affect on performance and don't weigh anything anyway...couple of hoses...BFD....smog pumps are hard to find these days...you maybe have to get one from a junkyard and then the brackets for your car are most likely gone with the oem pump....

then the exhause manifolds were typically swapped to clean up the pump removal/engine compartment....all them typical spider pipes to each cylinder.....

EGR manifolds are much more restrictive for hi rpm flow, and usually replaced with earlier models....trick is...they know casting #'s and if you trigger enough with them, they maybe pull the books....

believe me, there is NO ONE out there that knows all the makes models years engine codes and options that affected the various contraptions on any given car.....no matter WHAT he thinks IF he says so, make him produce documentation so you can copy it for your build sheet....

at 1/2 century of hotrodding, I have lived through that era and know most of the tricks....

Paul L

That is correct and you were lucky. The fine is $365.00 and an appearance in court 30 days later with verification that the car has been returned to stock/factory condition. If not the car is de-plated.

GOSFAST

Of all the drawbacks living in N.Y., high taxes tops the list, we do get a break on the emissions program, all (gasoline powered) vehicles 25 year old or older are exempt from ALL emission requirements, both visual and tested.

They require a "safety-only" sticker!!

(Add) I believe the "California" cars had smog pumps already in '66, I know for a fact they had them in '67!

Thanks, Gary in N.Y.

P.S. I hope the "powers that be" don't read this, may give them some ideas???

Rich's'78

I posted earlier,,, that you beauty is actually as-is is un-insured, to boot. See who you will insure an actually installed car that didn'd come from the factory. And as previouses posters have noted, our old guys have to apppear to be be compliant with the days of their time. A friend of mine got pulled-over in a '57 about 15 yearls ago!!!
At the least, it just has to appear compliant. Doesn't have to pass any emissions. Track only, my friend.

toddalin

In California, you need to go back to 1965 or earlier. (Yeah I know that pre-75 is no longer subject to smog checks, but post-1965 is the year of required emissions equipment and if you pass a road-side IR smog check in a '74 and it fails, you better have your emissions equipment when they open the hood.) But even these pre-'66 cars had some emissions equipment (breather vent to the carb) and by law, any emissions equipment must be retained.

BTW, if CA decides to repeal the current law and go back to requiring checks back to 1966 again (has been bantered around), pre-'66 Vettes should go up in value.

VetteHalen

Is California still the worst state as far as emissions regulations go?

i would like my next Vette to be a pre-1976 to avoid smog checks but "Lee H" above says one is required with a change of ownership? is the car required to pass it or is it graded on some sort of "curve"? i can't imagine a '69 or '70 to pass a smog check...

toddalin

Would only have to pass the emissions limitation designated for that model year/group. A '70 would not be subject to the same standards as a new vehicle.

As far as the worst state for emissions, New Jersey soon followed California, and many other states later fell into line. The EPA can only require two levels of emissions, the "California" level and the "Federal" level. States who want to go cleaner than the "Federal" level adopt "California" standards.

But now, I would think that pretty much cars for all states follow the same set of restrictions and emissions equipment; only that CA (and probably some others) charges you an additional certification fee.