Went to get a smog check last week. Now my car is now 25 years old and so until last year would NOT have had to get one. But the CA legislature extended the smog check program in California to 30 years. DOH! Anyway went to the first place and I knew things would not go smooth when they said "Did Ford put turbos in 2.3L engines in '79?" Then they were pouring thru manuals and came back to talk to me. They said they needed the vacuum diagram. Now keep in mind, I have been smogging my car in CA for the past twenty years. Never once have they asked me for the vacuum diagram. Anyway, by luck I had it stuck to the back of Chiltons where I had put it after taking off the car to paint it. So I went to get it and took it back. Then the guy said that it looked like the vacuum diagram from a truck. And I bought the car in Texas and only have to meet Federal standards from where the car was purchased. So then the guy says that I have to meet CA standards cause the car is a California car. Wrong. Anyway the two guy said I was trying to pull a fast one on them, blah, blah, blah. So now I'm pissed and said "So for twenty years all the smog shops in Ca have been wrong". The guys said yeah theyve been wrong. What a bunch of idiots. They simply did'nt know how to inspect a car that was twenty five years old with a turbo cause they are so few of them around, especially with a carb turbo.
I wish this was the end of the story, but I take it to another place. Right away I see the guy call the other five smog check guys over and they are pointing at the turbo and things. I'm thinking, WTF? Why am I having problems now?? So, the second smog shop guy says, "Is this turbo stock?" Of couse, I said. He then says, "There is a lot of vacuum tubing here". Of couse I said, It's a '79 and cars back then were notorius for running their emissions controls with a mess of vacuum tubing. I had the vacuum diagram and he says he is not comfortable with signing off on the visual inspection because he is unfamiliar with the '79 turbo. By now I am getting ready to lose it. At this time I had spend 3 hours trying to get my LEGAL car just visually inspected. No problem, I said, I will just inform the California Air Resources Board *(CARB) that Smog N Go cannot perform smog checks on American Cars made in the year '79. When I said that, he called his supervisor on the phone, and then came back to me and said he would sign off on the visual. He then put car on the smog machine/computer and it passed with flying colors.
Now the only reason I'm posting this sad tale is because many of you with the older turbo cars will probably start having the same problem as your cars approach 20 yrs of age. Just be prepared with all the documentation you can possibly take with you. 3 hrs and 45 minutes for what should have been a routine smog check. And I have to do it again in two years.
I wish this was the end of the story, but I take it to another place. Right away I see the guy call the other five smog check guys over and they are pointing at the turbo and things. I'm thinking, WTF? Why am I having problems now?? So, the second smog shop guy says, "Is this turbo stock?" Of couse, I said. He then says, "There is a lot of vacuum tubing here". Of couse I said, It's a '79 and cars back then were notorius for running their emissions controls with a mess of vacuum tubing. I had the vacuum diagram and he says he is not comfortable with signing off on the visual inspection because he is unfamiliar with the '79 turbo. By now I am getting ready to lose it. At this time I had spend 3 hours trying to get my LEGAL car just visually inspected. No problem, I said, I will just inform the California Air Resources Board *(CARB) that Smog N Go cannot perform smog checks on American Cars made in the year '79. When I said that, he called his supervisor on the phone, and then came back to me and said he would sign off on the visual. He then put car on the smog machine/computer and it passed with flying colors.
Now the only reason I'm posting this sad tale is because many of you with the older turbo cars will probably start having the same problem as your cars approach 20 yrs of age. Just be prepared with all the documentation you can possibly take with you. 3 hrs and 45 minutes for what should have been a routine smog check. And I have to do it again in two years.