I have a custom exhaust welded to the stock cat with racing beat headers. There's an exhaust leak and I have a replacement gasket that I can drop in, but I was wondering if I can even smog it with the custom exhaust?

I ask because if I can't smog it with the custom exhaust, I still have an opportunity to pick up the stock exhaust with a high flow cat (the seller said he used it to pass smog and then went straight pipe). It should smog fine with the racing beat headers, correct?

I just don't want to replace the gasket and find out that I can't even smog it since it's custom. And since I'm going to be down there, I might as well swap to stock to smog, if that's the case.

Thanks

 

doesn't matter if it is custom or not, some techs will be **** about aftermarket cats since not all are legal for use in california. if you have an exhaust with an OEM main cat, use that.

 

in CA that exhaust will fail the visual. however if the visual isn't a problem, i have had cars pass smog with headers before, i didn't do back to back, but if anything i think the headers helped

 

wrap em up and make a bracket to bolt the stock heat shields to!

 

lol, that might work. mine were 20 year old RB parts, so they were all rusty and blended in...

 

some smog techs will let it fly, others will know there is a precat missing.

 

yep. my guy doesn't care about rotary stuff at all, i've brought him some pretty crazy stuff over the years, but bring him a VW and he gets the magnifying glass out!

my brother put a 92 VW engine into his 85 golf, and it looks the same to me, but the smog guy wont touch it!

 

Mine passes everytime, but I do go to the same place. They use the mirror to check for cats and do a visual. I can tell that he doesn't know what he is looking at. Same goes for my '81 that also had an aftermarket cat.

 

i always go to the same guy, i bring him like 6-8 cars a year

 

it turns out that i'll be swapping in the stock exhaust and stock cat. i was wondering if i can smog it with the racing beat header or should i swap it back to stock mani? my smog guy won't do visual so that's a plus.

 

in my experience the header doesn't affect emissions.

 

If they hear a leak they may not do it though.