this is somewhat of a two part emissions question.

there is no way that i am going to be able to get my car to pass smog with my rb exhaust, and i really donot want to go through all of the trouble to bring it back to stock. so i was thinking, have a custom pipe made , that would fit in place of the prescilencers, and use then durring smog time only.

first question, is will an air pump (and acv?) be necessary? i have already taken them both off, and am woundering if i will need to put them back on again.

second, how many main cats do you think i should put in this pipe? my plan was to have the pipes collect right after the header, go into two or three main cats, and then split back into two so that it can bolt up to the muffler.

basically, what is necessary to bring emissions down enough to pass in central/southern california?

 

I think a bribe would be in order!
I don't think the system will work at all if any of the components are missing. The emissions system is very complex. It regulates timing thru vacuum advance lines and even richens the engine during idle so that there's enough fuel to burn the extra crap in the exhaust furnace that's supposed to be on there.
I doubt you'll be able to do what you want at all. And even if you could, by the time you did get it all sorted out, you may have found that it would've been less work and time just to reinstall all the original **** for testing, and rip it all off again when you got home!
(Besides, if it were possible, everyone in California would be doing that to their firsts!)

 

i know that some state, like were i live, to pass the visual inspeccion have to have the air pump and the 2 or 3 cat depende what year is the car or like the 79-80 you need the thermal reactor.to pass the sniffing test, i dont know.you may try to find whatever tipe of emission came in you car. and you gonna have more trouble because you live in california. so good luck

 

problem with a straight bribe is that everything is transmitted strate from computers now. i was planing on a little pay off for the visual stuff, but didnot think that i would be able to (or even find anyone to) payoff for the emissions

 

If I remember correctly, in California there is a visual inspection as well as a smog test. If you have headers, the car will fail the visual inspection. So even if you had headers and a custom cat and the smog pump on the car ( which will pass emissions in other places) it will not make it in CA due to the visual inspection.

In other states having headers and a high flow cat, as long as the airpump in connected to the cat, will make it through emmissions.

I have RB headers and Mazdatriz Highflow cat bolt on type for emmissons and works perfect, but the airpum has to be connected to the cat, not necessarily to the ACV, which can be removed, but the airpump to cat connection is a most for it to pass.

Looks like you will have to at least put the stock exaust manifford and cats back for the visual. You might be able to get by without the ACV but you will definetly need the airpump....

 

The air pump provides oxygen to the cat enabling it to more fully burn the exhaust gases, and hopefully pass emissions. Kind of like blowing on a camp fire to make it burn hotter.

 

problem with putting back on the exhaust is that it is a pain in the ***. i would have to remove my headers, prescilencers, and muffler. then then put back on the exhaust manifold, thermalreactors, stock muffler, airpump, etc....

damn, why do i have to live in a smog **** state.. i donot think that i will have a problem paying someone off to ignore the visual expection. my concern, however, is with the sniffer test.

jose: you said that the mazdatrix cat bolts up to the rb header with no problem.. do you know about the powerpulse high-flow muffler (that rb sells with its exhaust)?? that could always be a way to go, rather than buying the flanges and having a custom pipe made.

 

I've heard of people just temporarily putting the airpump on and hooking it straight into the air tube on the converter. Wouldn't want to do that for very long, though, as you really should have the ACV and solenoid rack controlling when and where the air is injected. You can have too much air as well as not enough.

 

what ever i do is only going to be a temporary thing. after smog, i will go back to the setup that i normally run.

i was thinking about bloting up the air pump (so that i donot lose any of the pieces) and just hooking up a belt when i want to run it. that way, the rest of the time, it will not be taxing on the engine. it adds a little bit of extra weight, but i am not really weight concious at this point.

if doing it that way, would the rats nest be necessary, or should i just remove that crap??

 

i was also planning on, at the time of smog, lean out the fuel a bit. since i have a regulator, i can decrease the psi a couple points. it will not really hurt the engine since i am not going to be running it hard under those circumstances.