My 67 Rally Sport has the A.I.R. Smog System. I no longer have to have my car smog check here in California because of the new laws. Would it be an advantage or disadvantage to disable the Smog system and where would I find this information to disable it without causing any problems to the normal operation of the car. Would it deter from the originallity of the car?

Well, legally you can not hamper with any 'working' smog devices what so ever. But, if you inspect your system and find that it does not work as it should (HINT HINT) then you may discard the device until you find a suitable replacement.

Even when we still had the stringent laws intact for our years 67-69, I never had a problem passing smog without any part of the smog system intact with the exception of the PCV valve. In fact in 94-95, I had to do a smog on my '67. I pulled into a local LA smog station and the tech had a 94 on the next machine over (doing an EGR failure check) and we found out that my '67 with 274,000 miles on it put out less emissions that a brand new 94 F-Body.

As for the originality, just keep your old stuff. You can always reinstall it if that became an issue.

If the smog system is working good you probably won't see much performance improvement by disconnecting the system. You might get rid of some smog pump noise though.

The parts most prone to failure are the two check valves on the smog tubes and the "anti-backfire valve" which is the 1 1/2" round diaphram/can that has the plug wire stand on top of the round metal ring bracket on the passenger side. The check valves will just make exhaust noise if they are worn out and if you don't have your smog pump running or belt removed. Some guys are successful unscrewing the smog tubes without breaking them and then plugging the holes with cast iron plumbing plugs. I always break the tubes myself and have opted for non-AIR manifolds. The Anti-back fire valve diaphragm failure will cause your engine speed to hunt up and down due to the vacuum leak that will occur from the diaphragm to that port in the center rear of the carb.

I'd take off your both your AIR exhaust manifolds and put on regular log manifolds. Take off the smog pump, bracket and belt. The waterpump and fan will run just fine with one belt. You can get a single groove pulley also if you want cleaner esthetics. Plug the vacuum port on the back of the carb that went to the anti-backfire valve. If you want to keep your PCV valve on the oil filler tube then you could hook it up to this same vacuum port, but it might take a restricting orifice in-line if you find that you have too much cylinder ring blow-by. I would just get a non-California oil filler and cap or takeout the PCV valve and plug the hole. The front tube on the air cleaner that went to the smog pump needs to be capped with something like a hose with a 3/4" brass or steel plumbing type plug. The crankcase breather by you distributor is the only thing left to worry about. You could use the AIR big diameter breather that you have, but it wouldn't look stock with the other changes you have made. I'd replace the big diameter breather with the non smog one with a smaller diameter outlet and make a hose reducer, so that you can connect the small 3/8" hose from that rear crankcase breather to the large 3/4" inside diameter hose going to the air cleaner.

If you do away with the PCV valve and go with a vented oil filler tube cap, you will definite get oil film on your valve cover, plug wires, brake booster and under the hood on the driver's side of the engine. At least that is what I live with on my daily driver with 125K miles on the engine.

If you've done all the above the car will look pretty close to a non-California car and fool just about everyone. However a car show judge will look at the VxxxMF block code in the numbers on the passenger front side of the block an know immediately what you have done.

[This message has been edited by bonecrusher67conv (edited 01-17-2003).]

Here in MO we have a "Visual" test...

If the sucker doesn't look stock right off the bat, they look up the VIN number and find out what is supposed to be on the vehicle stock...

I don't know about being excempt by age, but I bet they can still fail you if the stock stuff isn't there...

Tell us if it is true if you do strip your motor when you go to get plates/tags, whatever...

pdq67

Thanks guys for the replys. My 67' Camaro is pushing 410K total miles. This last overhaul is around 160K miles. The smog system all works OK. I was only asking because it's getting harder to find smog parts for my car. I just heard about Rick's and Hemmings on the other forums. I'll check them out. Thanks again.