Finally passed the stringent bureaucratic CA smog test.

[scarebus]

If you have followed my BB on Permatune and 'Help' you will
know the dilemma I went through. I changed my 2.7 to 3.0 two
yrs ago when it passed the smog. This yr CA went into dyno
tests on 15 and 25 mph, and it failed on smog and timing, where
'77 was 15 ATDC and '78 is 5 BTDC. I was told to go to a referee
to get a sticker on the engine change. Dilemma started from here.
The referee checked every smog devices, which I had, and failed
me on dual vacuum pods on the distributor. That was the only
distributor I had, but I had a single pod off a BMW sitting on the
shelf. Changed the pod and got an appointment a week later.
This time he puts it on the dyno, and it failed on 15 mph. Looked
at the sheet and saw the rpm was only 1538 at 15 mph. I
argued that nobody who owns a 911 will drive 15 mph at 1538 rpm, plus he was using secong gear. I told him the car will bog
at the speed at that rpm. Then he printed a sheet detailing how
to test a manual transmission vehicles, and it says to test on
2nd gear, both 15 and 25 mph. Can't argue anymore, so took
it to my regular smog mechanic and tweaked the mixture to
pass on 2nd gear. It ran awful on the street. Made appointment
a week later, as you can see, there's a long line on people trying
to get to the referee. O.K. this time he looks at my Permatune CD
unit and says 'thats not an OEM'. He printed a ARB(air research
board) executive order 210 I believe, and it mentions MBZ and
BMW using Permatune as add-on equipment but not Porsche.
That's when I posted 'Help, I need to borrow Bosch CD unit',
and thanks guys, Nobody responded. I finally sent e-mail to Lonnie of Permatune and he sent me one of his client's Bosch
CD that had been re-gutted with Permatune parts. And yesterday,
slapped it on and passed the test. Got a sticker showing timing 5 BTDC and some smog devices. Lonnie is straightening this out
with the CA ARB. Its all bureaucracy.

[Zack S.]

Reason #511 not to live in California!

[Emission]

I just received one of those notices in the mail that my Porsche has to go to a SMOG TEST ONLY station for a test. I don't think my 4-speed 930 can even run 15 mph in second without stalling or puking emissions (it is geared to do nearly 90 mph in second!). I am dreading this...

Sorry to hear about your nightmare. Glad it finally passed.

[dvkk]

One way to get the RPMs up without them knowing is to temporarily install smaller dia rear tires. Know anyone who could loan you some small tires? A 225/50 on an 8x15 Fuchs should do nicely. But you should check into the 25mph test. I heard that years ago the CA test would fail you if you exceeded 3000 rpm in 2nd at 25mph. I don't know if they still do that.

We used to have the 15mph test along with the 25mph test, but they dropped the 15mph test since their statistics showed most cars either pass both, or fail both. Very few pass one and fail the other.