Yes, my car passed smog at a smog ref just as you describe below. And they did look for CA stamped on the cats. Chances are you wouldn't have problems with just one cat though I would paint it exhaust black as Cops in CA tend to think shiny=illegal.

 

did you only have one cat? and what are your mods?

 

2 Cats 1 magnaflow metal cat (the spun bullet style), about 6 inches further back than the stock pre cat, and one cheap catco main cat with Air tube. both have CA on the stamped number meaning they are OBD 1 legal in CA, they are welded into an EBAY 3 inch downpipe with a 3 inch racing beat exhaust. Also a big ebay FMIC and an HKS (the legal one) intake. They weren't concerned about the fmic at all, but they where about the intake. Passed easily with allot of headroom, all categories could have been at least 100% more PPM and would have still passed.

[QUOTzE=Scrub;7033289]did you only have one cat? and what are your mods?[/QUOTE]