Cali Smog Engine Rebuild

[HotRodPC]

The visual will fail you quickly if the items @HotRodPC mentioned aren't in place too. It may not have an EGR, mine doesn't, but it has all of the other stuff. The guy opens the hood and see a factory engine with all of the items it needs to pass. I asked him about the vortec heads and intake and he said that doesn't matter. It runs clean and looks like it needs to. I was kind of hoping I had to smog mine this year to see what the improvements have done to the emissions, but I have to wait a year. The guy digs my truck, says they are rare, and the 1/2 tons a next to impossible to pass because the added regulations on them. I even asked him about the exhaust, and he didn't even leave the office, just looked out saw 8 lugs and said you can do whatever you want because it doesn't have a catalytic converter. I chose to leave it 2.5 inch single because it runs really well with that setup. But if I wanted to I could run 4 inch duals or run stacks out the hood.

I wasn't sure on the EGR for the 1 ton in that year. But... unless things have changed, on the visual the only thing they DO TEST is the EGR if you have it. They hook a vac pump to the EGR and it better make the engine stumble and almost die at idle or it'll FAIL for defective EGR, ie bad diaphram or stuck pintle so it won't move, or carbon build up has it stuck which can be cleaned off and put back on then it'll work 9x of 10.
On the thermostatic air cleaner and AIR pump, it just has to be there and is not tested but part of the visual on the AIR pump is a belt on the pump and the pump is turning and not seized which is very common for that to happen if they sit for a long time after getting some age on them. The TAC (Thermostatic Air Cleaner) just needs all it's components, the air cleaner with the Vac actuator in the snorkle, the heat riser tube and the heat riser on the exhaust manifold or it a smog legal header with the pipe ports in it, then a round piece of metal tac welded on top of one of the header tubes will pass it too, and a vac line to the TAC actuator which is usually routed through a TVS (Thermal Vac Switch) either in the intake water jacket or thermostat housing and maybe even the same one as the EGR TVS. Many guys know those TAC's are seized and not working at all but just so their ass is covered and it's there, they're not likely to fail you if it doesn't have a vac line connected to it, of it you just bypass the TVS and have it hooked to manifold vacuum for the test and unplug it as soon as it passes.

 

[DoubleDingo]

One year my '91 cherokee failed because of a vacuum line. It's one of those plastic lines with female rubber ends. One end was cracked, not leaking but cracked. FAIL! The numbers were well below the average, but I had to get that hose, and there was only one left in the United States. Took it back, and pass.

I feel for those here in CA with 1/2 tons and missing or inoperable emissions equipment on their rigs. That's the whole reason I turned my brother down to buy back my dad's '79 GMC Sierra Grande 4x4. It's a great truck, but my dad removed all the emissions stuff, and my other brother tossed it when dad passed away. I remember the milk crate it was all sitting in back in the shed. Now it's buried at the dump.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

One year my '91 cherokee failed because of a vacuum line. It's one of those plastic lines with female rubber ends. One end was cracked, not leaking but cracked. FAIL! The numbers were well below the average, but I had to get that hose, and there was only one left in the United States. Took it back, and pass.

I feel for those here in CA with 1/2 tons and missing or inoperable emissions equipment on their rigs. That's the whole reason I turned my brother down to buy back my dad's '79 GMC Sierra Grande 4x4. It's a great truck, but my dad removed all the emissions stuff, and my other brother tossed it when dad passed away. I remember the milk crate it was all sitting in back in the shed. Now it's buried at the dump.

That's the precise reason it's a great picking ground for neighboring states though.