sEmissions Inspection

in many counties of California there are no smog tests at all ,on any cars
as of maybe 5 years ago
Modoc,Mono,Toulumne, I don't know all the areas that were completely exempt from smog,
even large towns such as Sonora were completely exempt
and there are many junkers spewing out black smoke driving around in those counties
 
Wow. Here in OZ, there is no regular testing of exhaust emissions on any car, let alone car of this age.
I think testing modern cars every now and then is not a bad idea but not cars the age of ours. I have to wonder how the collector car movement in USA has allowed itself to end up in this situation. I find it surprising also that everybody commenting here seems to be just rolling over and accepting it.
Is there a national or even a state level body representing the interests of the collector car movement? We have such bodies whose members are car clubs themselves. As a united block, they are listened to.
I still can't believe this!!
 
synch,
look at your population and land mass, then look at ours. WO emissions testing, America would be as bad as China................

with that said, NJ has given up on so many vehicles, it is funny!
No emissions, for motorcycles any longer, no emissions for diesels and if your car is registered as a 20 year old classic, no emissions. Was much tougher when I was in HS eons ago............
 
It's not really that bad here in Illinois, Synchro. Vehicles that are Antique, custom, street rod or pre '68 are exempt. There is also a form that can be filled out by a National Street Rod Assn. inspector to even exempt a new construction hot rod built to resemble an older car, say a Brookville '32 3 window, titled in 2014 yet appearing as a '32.
Each state will have it's own laws and regulations, and also here in Illinois only the more populated cities/counties have testing as they are the most likely to have air quality issues.
 
If you have regular tags in NJ, you have to pass the emissions test. The standards are the same for all pre-'68 vehicles:
HC: 1400ppm
CO: 8.50%

To answer the original poster's question - the HC's will be down if there is not an ignition miss and CO will be reduced by leaning the mixture down as much as you can without inducing a lean miss. I've taken our Model T and Model A to the state inspection and found that it is pretty easy to pass if it is running normally (no miss) and the mixture is lean enough. The last time the Model A went through inspection it had:
HC= 371ppm (really pretty high, it had a slight miss)
CO= 6.25%

You'll have to check the standards for wherever you live.
 
Wow. Here in OZ, there is no regular testing of exhaust emissions on any car, let alone car of this age.
I think testing modern cars every now and then is not a bad idea but not cars the age of ours. I have to wonder how the collector car movement in USA has allowed itself to end up in this situation. I find it surprising also that everybody commenting here seems to be just rolling over and accepting it.
Is there a national or even a state level body representing the interests of the collector car movement? We have such bodies whose members are car clubs themselves. As a united block, they are listened to.
I still can't believe this!!

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In California you can build a hot rod right out of the Jeg's catolog with every piece of speed equipment known to mankind. Put the biggest badest supercharge Hemi in it. Put a Model T bucket on it and call it a 1925 Ford model "T", and avoid emissions test
 
Only if you don't mind going to prison. Case in point, the late Mr. Boyd had a visit from the men in black. They strapped him over a chair, and inserted a very large, very long ***** into his rear entry, as Mr. Avoid-the-Boyd had bought old Model A frames/titles and consequently used them to title his easter-egg colored plastic contraptions as antique cars. He paid close to a quarter million dollar in fines, the Schmacks who bought those cars from him lost them, and shortly after he died.
 
ronn, point taken about population and land mass. Same size but 22 million vs 317 million people. That said, we still have large cities. Melbourne and Sydney are each neaerly 5 million so the way regulators work, they would impose restrictions to clean them up and everybody else is caught in the same net.
The purpose of my comment was to say "if you don't like it, do something about it".
To my way of thinking, cars that were built before an emission standard was introduced should be exempt from having to meet it. An "umbrella" organisation representing the interests of old car guys has a better chance of dealing with the "runaway epa", especially when the government they work for sees how many of us vote. That doesn't change - Australia or America.
 
well synch,
it is a state by state thing here-so 50 different entities doing 50 different things.........
we SHOULD have one drivers license for all, (would help with the illegals) and identical regulations, but that would be a task our gov couldnt handle-they cant handle much these days...............
 
No NJ wouldn't! With the newer rings etc, the air would still be cleaner. I grew up in North NJ in the forties, fifties and sixties and I remember real pollution. You almost needed an iron lung when you came out of the tunnels. I recall driving behind a Pub. Serv. Bus in my 54 Ford convertible, with the top down through the Lincoln tunnel. I still gag at the thought of it! It was stop and go and ever hundred yards or so, the bus driver would bury us in a cloud of diesel fumes.
I also recall that about one in every twenty cars or so was a "Smoker". It hadn't seen many oil changes in it's life. The rings and valves were just worn out. I recall sitting at the light on rt9 in Sayreville in the summer with the windows rolled down, going down the shore, in my grandmothers 35 Pontiac. The car next to us had breather issues. The smoke was coming from under the car. You know the place, with that infamous traffic light, Right by the old Dutch Boy paint factory. It's a Super fund site today!
This was before the US Interstate system. The higher speeds and less time on the roads, and the Right on Red, plus smaller and better engines, has all contributed to the lower pollution levels. I don't think we'll ever see that kind of pollution again, nor could we with going back in history.
Terry



synch,
look at your population and land mass, then look at ours. WO emissions testing, America would be as bad as China................

with that said, NJ has given up on so many vehicles, it is funny!
No emissions, for motorcycles any longer, no emissions for diesels and if your car is registered as a 20 year old classic, no emissions. Was much tougher when I was in HS eons ago............
 
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You can't blame smog solely on the automobile. Smog has existed in large cities since the Middle Ages. Look at photos of London or New York or Newark in the late 19th century, before the automobile was even invented, and you'll see skies black with soot from coal burning and industrial pollution.

Certainly, some of the components found in automobile emissions have contributed to smog in the past century, but atmospheric conditions (especially inversion layers) and industrial emissions (especially coal burning) can contribute as much or more in many locations where smog is a persistent problem.
 
Actually, smog is a function of NOx - and NOx production is a function of the pressure and heat that combustion occurs at.

The tendency for utility boilers is to go to fluidized bed - in part because it allows combination of the fuel with calcium bearing products (which tend to compete chemically with the oxygen in the air for Nitrogen at high temps/pressures) but also because it allows the combustion process to occur at lower temperatures overall but still keep combustion going.

Diesel engines are particularly high emitters of NOX, at least in part due to their high temps and pressures under which combustion occurs.

The original Model A - with its relatively modest compression ration - should be a relatively mild emitter of NOx.

My diesel VW has as part of its exhaust system, a catalytic converter - the object of which is to burn off CO, and reduce NOx through recombination/delayed combustion. The elements of a cat actually "glow" during use - diesels newer than mine actually spray in excess fuel AFTER the exhaust valve opens simply to "fuel" the catalytic converter - a trade of fuel efficiency for NOx efficiency - and (heh) likely no reduction in actual NOx produced since the fuel consumption is thereby increased.

But this similar to the Ethanol/Gasoline debate which still rages and which we have addressed in a different thread.

Someone has decided - and made the law, and thus your life in this small matter is forfeit to them.

Some call it regulatory creep. Others say this is progress. Others say a damn shame. Increasing others say where's my unemployment check. And some say this a forum for Model A technical and not political discussion.

And the latter is most correct.

Joe K
 
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