I was hoping to pick up an NA FC pretty soon, and i heard that CA has made it more difficult to pass smog. Would a mostly stock FC have too much trouble passing?

 

When you say mostly stock, what do you mean? I'm in WA, which uses CA emissions standards and I can't get my fc to pass to save my life. I do however have racing beat headers and cat back exhaust. The pre cats can deteriorate and clog up the main cat if you have the stock exhaust system. All in all, before you buy, get it on a lift and inspect the whole exhaust. If it looks like it won't pass, it won't.

 

Yes, it is harder to pass. Will depend on the smog station, but most are going to call you out on anything that's not smog legal (IE modified).

-Don

 

its not too hard to pass if u have a decent cat all stock counter parts , and CLEAN INJECTORS!!!!! NO Vacuum leaks, and all smog counterparts along with the air pump

 

California is the clean air over-achiever. Make sure that your idle is within spec and that you have no check engine lights on because the station will fail you if they happen to be exhaust ****'s. And also, noone up here will pass a cold-air intake if it doesn't have a C.A.R.B. # so watch out for that.
My S5 just passed, it's all stock. I didn't do any tricks, just ran it for 20 minutes before hand, had a tiny bit of Lucas fuel injector cleaner and 1/8th of a tank of 87 octane. It had a super low Hydrocarbon reading which is awesome(maybe that's normal for rotarys?).

 

yeah i have been trying to pass smog with my 86 fc and i cant get the idle to 750 witch California is super picky about

 

You should tell them to READ the specs.
The car has an idle speed of 750 PLUS OR MINUS 10 Percent.
So really you should be able to idle up to about 825 rpm without them Citing it.