Cali emissions, what does that mean?
If that means you live in California, most exhaust systems in California are hand assembled with a torch and a tube bender at least the ones I dealt with. That may have changed.
I just recently had a whole new dual exhaust system bent up and installed which would pass smog for the car it was on. Add to that a pair of universal high flow cats and that is still well under your estimate of what it would take to get your $600.00 car back together.
In todays market you pretty much get what you pay for so if it was cobbed back together then it should have been spotted before money changed hands.
If it is needed for a winter car, frankly I would take it some where to get an estimate of what it would cost to get something put on it.
Or?
Off the thing and buy another car.
Exhaust systems for some are a necessary expense.

 

One little thing about this thread is that you are basing how much to invest in this car based on how much you paid for it and not on how much you will get back in return (ROI). The fact that you only paid $600 for it could mean that you could invest more into it and still get a good ROI.

I recently sold my 02 SL 5 speed with 275k on it for $800. It was in very good shape, looked and drove like it was only a year old and low miles. It was a silver blue special ($9995 with air) that I bought new so my original investment of 10686 means my purchase amortization worked out to less than $0.05/mile. I kept track of all the expenses and this little car ended up with a TOC (total owner cost) of around $0.14/mile. Thats gas, maintenance, tires, insurance and registration etc.

When I sold it, I told the new owners that if it didn't go at least 16k miles trouble free, I would refund a nickle a mile for every mile it was short of that. Never heard back and it has been just over a year.

If you invest $1000 into this car, you will have $1600 total in it. If you can expect at least 32k miles, and I don't see why not unless it is in pretty bad shape to begin with, then you will get a healthy ROI on this vehicle. Any more is just gravy. It will certainly be cheaper than your other car.

 

Cali emissions VS Federal emissions is the difference. Exhausts systems are not the same

 

Keith

I have already purchased a complete front pipe back system due to just being disgusted with how hacked everything was. Im about 1500/1600 into this with the purchase of the car, parts, tags/reg/inspection. Winter/beater car has turned into a project car.

 

Good decision, assuming the engine is sound (minus the issues we've been discussing) and the tranny is smooth, the overall integrity of the car is okay, and oil consumption is not massive (I'm guessing there is some oil consumption b/c anyone that would maintain their exhaust system that way doesn't sound like someone too concerned with general routine maintenance. SOHCs tend to burn less than DOHCs but I'm still guessing there is some going on.

Which system did you go with?

Always like to spread the word so others know their options.

 

Often the only difference between "cali" emissions and federal emissions is the certification by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). There are 7 other states that also require CARB certified replacement items. You cannot even buy non certified parts in California or the other 7 states and most mail order parts houses will not ship them to those states.

On some low volume parts, the only place to get the parts is at the dealership as it is not worth it to the aftermarket manufacturers to get the certification, which can be a bit expensive.

 

Thanks Keith.

That was the detail I was seeking

 

I'll question the assumption one can not buy non certified parts in California. Having lived there for quite a few years and enjoyed the position of an automotive hobbyist.
Parts are sold there all the time with the tag of Not certified for smog certification or words to that affect.
I no longer have the documentation I used on a regular basis to see what I needed to do to get "around" one thing or another, but having that documentation pretty much said one thing, the rules changed on a regular basis based on time. Even to the extend of purchasing a non-certified car and bringing it into to the state. As an individual of course there were a different set of circumstances vs those applied to a corporation, or at least on paper and were based more or less on extreme circumstances such as having an accident out of state and having to purchase a replacement car was one specified example another was something like purchasing a "new" car model as long as it was something like 4 months old at the time of purchase. Again, these were exception circumstances outlined in a code book that at the time could be purchased from California DMV for $2.00. And there were others too. The point being though that purchasing non-certified parts were done all the time.
While there I purchased one new car and a number of used ones. The one new car happened to be a 92 model year MOPAR product which had 49 state smog certification. Which caused at the time some comments when I took it in for service for a problem where the symptom was the check engine light was on and it should not have been and it was a failure with the smog system which required repairs and as it happened, it was different than the California certified components.
The comments were unique in that head mechanic made noises as to where the car came from and then quieted up when told the dealership sold it new.
I don't think I owned a California Smog Certified car the entire time I was there however I never had any problem buying repair parts nor having one pass a smog test which was religiously applied pretty much on an as needed basis.
Yes, there were a lot of "parts" that were NOT sold as California certified parts due to the expense of having a certification done, but they were sold more or less as off road parts.
Once sold it was up to the owner to deal with the vehicle passing smog or not. At that point a vehicle had to pass a visual and a mechanical smog test. Smog tests as applied are state run with the specifics detailed by the state and applied by a geographical criteria. There were locations where smog tests were not required.
Certain mechanical devices which were not smog compliant obviously if visible would not pass a smog test, others if not visible and you could tune around them, would not be seen and thus would pass simply because they did not affect the end result of a smog test.
One had to know the rules as part of being a hobbyist. One rule for example was played out by many.
The Chrysler 426 Hemi engine was exempt from passing smog. Decisions such as that were generally made based on the assumption that when initially sold the number of them would be so low that they made no effect on the overall smog problem and banning them would have a negative affect on the manufacturer. So the were exempted. The bottom line (and remember rules do change so I don't know what it might be today but yesterday) was if you had one in your car and it met the exchange rules, it was smog exempt and being smog exempt you could modify it any way you wanted and it was by definition smog legal. And the odds are that it was modified by using parts purchased that had an off road designation applied to them to allow them to be sold and imported.
As to other parts that were not modified, as long as they were factory replacement parts for your car, there were no problems purchasing them.
There may have been exceptions, but as I have done my own work for many years, I never had problems purchasing replacement parts nor having a car pass a smog test.
CAT BACK exhaust systems are sold all the time which converted single exhaust cars to duals. There was a profitable GREY market converting non-smog legal cars to smog legal prior to original sale that fed the deep pocket import market and the list goes on.
As far as I knew and still see, you had federal, California, High Altitude or Denver and Canadian smog certifications that were dealt with in the U.S. and some states adopted for example and at some points in time and dropped California standards.
Some parts had smog certifications others had off road paper work.
Today I own a 1980 American Motors Spirit that has a 1975 AMC Pacer motor installed which uses an Iskenderian cam and machine work to modify the compression ratio and a fuel injection kit that does happen to have a California Air Research Board documentation when installed and applied to the Jeep in California. In this configuration the Arizona smog system recognizes is as a 1994 Jeep Cherokee and has awarded it off road status requiring license renewal every three years rather than every year and waves smog inspection on it. (A rule change some where to my advantage)
The point? Find out what YOUR state rules are for your application because a blanket statement on smog requirements is generally wrong.

 

uncljohn, I too have lived quite a few years in California, though I don't live there now, but I do still have family there.

The rules vary depending on what year the vehicle is. From the mid 60's to about 96, California would generally tighten up the emissions and the feds would follow a few years later. Somewhere around 1990, the feds and California got into lockstep with the standards and OBDII was hatched. It was implemented starting in MY96 (model year 1996). In 97, California took the extra step is setting standards for ULEV (ultra low emissions vehicles) and required certain high smog communities to have a certain percentage of new cars meeting this standard.

CARB made requirements that any emissions related parts that were replaced on OBDII vehicles must meet OEM standards. The factory parts meet this by definition. Aftermarket suppliers had to certify that their parts also meet OEM standards before they can get CARB approval for sale in the state. Not sure exactly when that went into effect. Seven other states thought this was a pretty good idea but instead of setting up their own air resources board, they just made CARB approval their standard.

I am sure there are a lot of aftermarket parts that are just as good as the factory parts, but have not received CARB approval because they did not want to go through the expense and time to get it. If they work properly, I don't see how you would get caught, but if you did, you probably would not pass the smog test, even though you did pass. If you run a repair shop and use non certified parts, you would probably lose your license and get hit with a big fine.

 

The words "Probably" and "if" imply a lack of knowledge of the specific impact of what ever a ruling change is and the impact of it on every day life and automotive repair. N.Y. State was a state that at one point in time adapted California standards in an era of me-toism only to drop them when it was finally shown after an expensive and irresponsible implementation when it was shown that standards that would work in California would not work in a state that actually had winter and temperatures that included standing snow. As you pointed out, the sweeping rules some times covered specific years and when changed or if changed did not include those same years. An S car certainly is of the vintage where some California Specific part when sold by an OEM dealer became worn out and damaged based on age and abuse could not be replaced by a generic part and still pass smog. Generic High Flow Catalytic converters have been available for years as replacement quasi performance items and used.
And before I worried about buying something to run as a winter car I would want to know exactly what a smog rule said and what it meant and if a California Specific rule. one implemented by the state actually affected the state that I live in.
After the fact smog regulations are state generated and implemented and do not have an effect in other states and in addition rarely even parallel federal rules as they apply to the manufacturing of the specific vehicle. I plan on having my Hornet, smog certified with out a Catalytic converter when using a 232 I-6 engine with a Carter YF carburetor pass smog when it is put on the road, powered by a V8 Mercury Marine Motor with an Iskenderian Cam and a Chinese copy of an Edelbrock Air Gap intake with a Carter AFB carburetor and World Heads.
According to the local smog inspection station as long as it has on it the items called out by a Chiltons manual, it should pass smog.