Passed smog with broken valve spring

[Packy]

Yep, 911 SC with broken valve spring. Sent my car to Tim Bensen at Fastlane porsche last week. He threw my cat on and the smog pump then de-tuned it (it was running rich) and took it to a friend to pass smog. It passed no prob. I bought the car without smog equipment on and needed to get it registered.


This was all done for around $200 which in my opinion is a great price. If you are in Santa Cruz, gotta go to Tim. Race background and cool guy. He knows these cars well and is affordable.

And yes, i'm going to fix the valve spring ASAP.

[john walker's workshop]

hopefully no state inspectors read this.

[Peter Zimmermann]

Originally Posted by john walker's workshop

hopefully no state inspectors read this.

LOL!

Packy; The beauty of a broken valve spring is that the inner spring will not be broken, and will close the valve exactly as the combo spring would - at low revs. Does Santa Cruz use dynos, or are you one of the exempt, clean air, areas?

[aigel]

Not sure why you'd want to run and drive a car with a broken valve spring? Can't you fix that first and then smog it? First time you rev that thing to redline, you'll need a top end rebuild or more.

+1 on John - not necessarily great advertising for the shop.

George

[fumanchu]

I just passed with a broken one also. It really does not run much different except for the ticking. Get it fixed, its easy. There are a few tricks, like place a paper towel in the gap over the lower camshaft. If you drop a keeper in there, you'll be chasing it around in the abyss. Ask me how I know.

[longhornchris04]

As I recall, if you delay too long on your smog check you get stuck on the 'very naughty' list. As I understand it, its a major issue if your car is off the road for a rebuild.

[aigel]

Incorrect. If the car is down, put it on planned non operational registration. It needs a regular smog check to go back on normal reg.

George

[longhornchris04]

Good to know... not that I'm ever going to register my car in Cali. Military has its perks.

[Packy]

No, Tim didn't do anything illegal. The car needed to be smogged to transfer title and it didn't come with the equipment on it (I edited the original post a little to help make this clear). They did have to put it on a chassis dyno because it came from SoCal. I guess smog laws are stricter in SoCal than NorCal, at least that was the reason they said it needed the rolling dyno instead of just a sniffer.

I'll fix the valve as soon as Summit Racing gives me a refund for the shi**y defective coil on plugs they sold me for my daily driver, '97 F-150. I bought 8. One failed in two months. Took it to the dealership to figure out what was wrong. Brand new Summit part failed. Sent that back, three months later another failed. After yelling at them for a week the agreed to refund me. I guess they have decent customer service, but crappy CoPs for fords. Anyhow, driving my 911 for two weeks isn't all that bad, I just wish my other 911/racecar was ready and street legal.

Anyhow, $200 to do all that was a great price for a p-car mechanic. I know mechanics in San Jose who would have charged twice that. BTW, the car passed legally. Tim is a good guy and mechanic.