Short story:

So back in September I had to go to IL emmisions testing. I had an NA Auto vert with a 2.5" RB exhaust no cats. So I went in anyway knowing full well I would not pass. I didn't care because I was soon to have the engine pulled out and swapped for a whole TII swap thanks to one Kevin Landers, and I just really wanted to see how badly it would fail. I knew that once I failed I'd have X amount of time to get it fixed etc. So yeah, failed. Everything passed except HC which was way high. I was told I had until March to get it fixed.

It was kinda funny, all the guys at the emmisions place were checkin out my car and were all cool. Towards the end I thought, "gee this is weird is it possible they will be cool and let me pass or something?" So at the end they printout the report and come over to me all smiles and I get the "well here you go you failed" damn... oh well.

Current Situation:

So now here I am. Streetported TII engine with 3" RB Turboback exhaust. Presilencer is temporarily swapped out for a $65 2.5"(figured a little restriction couldn't hurt the test results) cheapo autozone cat flanged in and an LS1 airpump connected to the cat and wired up with a switch to turn it on for the test(pump tends to get kinda hot after running constantly) The airpump is also quite a heavy current draw, 20Amp fuse is too small!

I know the cat won't last but it doesn't need to since it is gonna get swapped back out 30 mins later. I'm hoping to pass without an issue on the first try. If I fail I'll dump some denatured alcohol in the tank and go right back. If I don't pass at that point then I will start to worry.

I'll post my results later tommorow. But for now, any thoughts guys? Any bets as to wether I'll pass or not?

 

Nope.

I failed with a cat and a LT1 airpump. Failed BAD.

 

New or old cat? How bad did you fail? Did you ever get the car to pass? If so what did you do to pass?

Oh yeah, and I got an SAFC2 which I will be using to help lean out the mix a bit. Got a EGT and wideband to help on that.

 

IL emissions are such BS... I barely passed the HC part of the test with a young rebuild and stock-ish exhaust. When I got the printout, it read 1.3L, CYLINDERS: 5.

Which station did you go to? Did your printout say ROTARY or did it look like mine?

 

Not sure, I can't find the printout. I will find out tommorow.

The station I went to was near franklin park. I'm not sure what town exactly it was in and I'm not 100% sure its still even open...

*edit* I think it was the Hillside station, which closed on october 1st last year.

 

I did more or less the same thing your doing, only I had the stock mazda pump plumbed directly into the exhaust (bypassing the ACV), and I failed. I went home and bought a second cheapo cat, this time without the air tub inlet, welded it in and passed easily. This was on a GSLSE with a huge streetport, running larger injectors with the 6pt valves removed. It ran very rich through most of the RPM band, and was horribly tuned by the previos owner. After just a few minutes of running the cats would be red hot. The car actually melted a spot in the greasy carpet under the car durring the smog dyno run.

 

Well I think there may be a small loophole(at least at the last place I got tested last time). They didn't want to put my car on the dyno because the dyno had sideguards that held the wheels in place. They were affraid they may dammage my nice rims. So they bassically did the test off the dyno just holding X revs with no load. I imagine the emissions aren't as strong when there is no load on the engine, am I right on this?

Oh yeah and they also put some "bag" on the hood of my car that read the RPMs and displayed it on screen. It was 500+rpm higher than what my tach said. Any of you IL guys have them do that with you?

 

Older high flow cat.

I havent tried to get it to pass, im just going to register it in a county in MO that doesent require emissions, since my step dad owns some property in southern missouri.

 

I passed by disconnectiong the cat and downpipe and letting it vent out the bottom

 

Why go through IL emmisions when you can get a showcar/race car emmision exemption?

It's shockingly easy.

 

You got my attention. What do I need to qualify for an exemption and where do I get it??

 

Print this form. All you'll need to do is fill it out and mark "Race Car". You do not need to send in any insurance forms if you do it this way. All you need to do is send in 2-3 pictures of the "race car parts" on your car or a car that looks like yours. Use "google" if you need to.

With this, you can still drive your car as much as you like. You aren't allowed a certain mileage per year.

http://www.epa.state.il.us/air/vim/forms/show-car.pdf

 

LoL are you ****** kidding? I have yet to get to the smog test.. I dunno if they will even let me try with my check engine light on. I may just put a peice of duct tape over the warning lights hehe. If I get a chance today I'm gonna try and see what happens. I gotta pass by the end of march or I lose my license... If I fail I'm gonna try this show car route.

Dude, I just opened that pdf and teh first thing I see is "Vehicles operated EXCLUSIVLEY in organized amatuer or professional sporting activities..." I don't think you can do this legally on a street car, at all.

I really wish my car was 25+ years old.....

 

It works. Plain and simple, been using it for 4 years now without a problem (Three years were dailing driving). My friends haven't had any problems either and they daily drive theirs.

 

Until you get pulled over...

 

Yeah, what exactly will happen if you get pulled over then?

 

What the hell are you talking about. You think I haven't been pulled over? Where on your car does it say anything about emmisions? No place. I've been pulled over in my RX7 three times that I can remember and not once did the police say anything.

This is legal. Call Springfield and ask for Karen and she'll tell you the same. That's who handles mine everytime mine is up for testing.

Edit: You know what.....Forget it..... Don't do it.

 

Hmm well I know when your pulled over up here your only asked for your license and proof of insurance. But what if for some reason I am asked for my registration, and they see that its a show\race car? You think they would ask what race or event I am going to? ****, I guess if they do ask I can always make up some event at Tuxedo Park how would they know I was lying or prove I am lying.

LoL! I am not gonna forget about this potential way out! If I can't get thru emmisions I will deffinatley give this a go.

 

It's not ON your car, but in your car's registration record. I'm pretty good at lying, but I'm not quite sure how i'd handle "Sir, can you explain why you were going 120+mph on your way to a drag strip?"

Karen, eh...she sounds hot. It's not legal, you just have to lie. "It is recognized that race cars cannot be insured" so the quick proof that you're violating the specifications for "race car" is having an insurance card. "Vehicles operated EXCLUSIVLEY in organized amatuer or professional sporting activities" sounds pretty explicit to me.

don't need to!

 

Yeah, I won't do this until mine actually fails... which will probably be next time ;-)

But unless you got caught going really fast, or your exhaust is really loud, the cop is not going to question your car's emissions status.

 

With the race car thing, u can drive to and from an "event". It doesnt say what kind of event. Could be a meeting with ur "team" a dyno tune, a meet and greet... its really open ended. You just have to send pictures in every two years with the form.

 

Okay, it wouldn't let me edit my post for some reason, but I just noticed something bad on that pdf. You have to send in another copy every time your car's due for emissions, and you have to write in the mileage every time. But I'm sure you could get away with making it up for quite a while and maybe forever.

Also, I think if you ever got a parking ticket for whatever reason, they'd know as soon as they looked up your registration that your car shouldn't be there. Then again, the pig stuck writing parking tickets all day probably isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

I don't know. For some reason cops follow me and run my plates two or three times a week, and (at least around here) that would be more than enough for them to pull me over and waste my time with stupid questions.

 

I already said, don't do it. You'll get in big trouble and you'll possibly get your car impounded.

 

No, that's for a show car, which must be insured and mileage restricted as such. And it DOES state what kind of event it is ("sporting event" for the public). It states that a race car must not be suitable for street use (ie- you'd be trailering it to/from the event)

 

FYI: Don't use this Race car/Show car exemption. You'll get in big trouble.



and you'll ruin it for the rest of us that have succesfully used it.