I'm moving to Huntersville (just north of Charlotte) and I've got an 80 SA with Dellorto intake and RE headers and exhaust.

Will I have problems with the regular inspection or how rigorous is it? PAs' inspection is pretty tough but where I live there's no emissions.

Is there emssions to worry about in that area ?

Any recommended places to take it ?

Thanks in advance for any and all replies.

Tim

 

Here in Raleigh it's saftey only on anything before 1996. They'll look (maybe) to see if you have your emission stuff but they won't hook it up to a sniffer. So you should be fine.

 

Thats the kind of answers I'm looking for. Keep em coming. Thanks.

 

Inspections are pretty easy going. Mostly stuff you should be aware of anyway. Brakes, lights, turn signals, etc.

 

I live in huntersville. I found a place I can get my singled FD to pass the inspection. Pre 96 it is only safety but they do a visual of engine bay for emissions stuff.

Cant say you will get the same result but it is one step better than randomnly picking one.

Drop me a pm so we can get up with each other. Huntersville is a great place to live - I moved here almost 3 years ago...

 

Im in Charlotte and worked at a garage for a while that did a lot of inspections. Since your car is model year 95 or earlier(in this case 80), your inspection is Saftey only. You need to have good windshield wipers, tires, brake pads, and all working lights(exterior). Any emissions equipment the car came with its "suppose" to have(air pump, EGR, charcoal canister, ect. Although most people never even check for that stuff or for that matter know what RX7's actually came with.

 

If you can find a shop that doesnt care then you will pass easily. if you go to a reputable shop in most cases they will fail you if you dont have something that APPEARS to be a cat on your car. They really dont look too hard otherwise. The lack of cat will fail you though. Just have something that appears to be a cat, pre-silencer or gutted stock cat and you will be fine.


BC

 

you have to have the original looking stuff on there. I did not have a thermal reactor, or a rats nest and the guy new right off. It does not have to even be hooked up just has to be there. i told him i upgraded the exhaust to cats (presilencer) and he bought it but for the vacccum lines and rats nest you need to look like you tried.

 

^ as they said, you need to pass a visual only.

I also have an SA. I've been in for insepction once since I moved here and the place I went to was the Emissions station on Statesville Ave between Gilead and Wt Harris.

When I first brought my RX-7 in it failed for an exhaust leak. I had been planning on overhauling the exhaust and already had a header waiting around so I asked him if I could replace the "exhaust manifold" (thermal reactor) with a header. He said that would be fine but I had to keep the heat exchanger. I explained to him that it was a heat exchanger and not a catalytic convertor but he didn't believe me and said his book called it "emissions equipment." I really wanted to get rid of it, poor mating surfaces on the HE was why it had an exhaust leak. He also said I needed to keep the airpump (even though it was now useless). Funny that his bible didn't remark that the thermal reactor was central to the emissions system. So I put a sheet metal insert between the intake manifold and air control valve. I also gutted the ACV so all the air was pumped to the pipe that used to go to the thermal reactor and put a homebrew muffler at the end of the pipe to eliminate the whistling. In order to get the air hose that feeds the HE to fit around the header it was necessary to grind off the heat shield that was welded onto it. After all this it passed. The there guy was cool; I asked if I could use the sniffer to tune my carb down the road and he said it would be fine if I brought it on a day they weren't busy. One day one I'm going to make good on that.

I can't confirm this, but one of my neighbors said that the emissions station on Old Statesville just north of Gilead is very lenient.