Best California Street Legal headers?

[9secondko]

i am in the process of swapping out my old and busted terminator engine (head tick gone horribly awry...) and am researching exhaust while I am at it.

My dream system would be a Borla Stinger catback with Bassani Catted X (but hearing conflicting reports as to its legality) and a set of headers, preferably long tube.

Any advice on this? would this be legal? I live in CA and need a legal system. I know the Borla's are safe. What about the headers and the mid pipe?

 

[moonltgold]

Only one header for 03-04 Cobras that's CARB legal in CA: JBA 1625S-7JT

 

[cobracide]

Only one header for 03-04 Cobras that's CARB legal in CA: JBA 1625S-7JT

Yep.

 

[Midnight_Cobra]

Everything in California is legal. Depends how much you want to pay for smog.

 

[cbr repsol]

Everything in California is legal. Depends how much you want to pay for smog.

yeah your right.


op no long tube header is legal in cali, i plan on long tubes anyway.

 

[PUNISHRRR]

I had a bassani catted x on my 03 cobra and it would not pass smog! I had to swap it back to the stock in order to pass. Then I figured, why do I want a catted x that does not pass smog? so I did the irresponsible thing and bought a catless x.

 

[Wishing4Cobra]

If your worried about smog in CA, I would just stick with stock headers and a catted mid pipe.

 

[MLS]

No mid pipes are CARB legal : (

 

[arc00ta]

Long tubes are 50-state illegal. Any device that modifies smog control equipment or moves the catalytic converters and/or oxygen sensors is against federal law. Cali just happens to be strict on it.

Don't try to depend on having an "expensive" smog and get by, it will bite you in the ass when you find out the place got shut down, the state is really cracking down on them.

My advice, run the stock gear at least for smog. New legislation is coming down, I want to say it was for 2013, that any car that can pass the OBDII port scan for readiness will not need the sniffer and then it will be a whole new ball game for modding.

 

[P49Y-CY]

Long tubes are 50-state illegal. Any device that modifies smog control equipment or moves the catalytic converters and/or oxygen sensors is against federal law. Cali just happens to be strict on it.

Don't try to depend on having an "expensive" smog and get by, it will bite you in the ass when you find out the place got shut down, the state is really cracking down on them.

My advice, run the stock gear at least for smog. New legislation is coming down, I want to say it was for 2013, that any car that can pass the OBDII port scan for readiness will not need the sniffer and then it will be a whole new ball game for modding.

how so? can you elaborate?

in other words do you mean that as long as it passes the port scan that visual tests and the requirements for carb#'s on equipment will be a thing of the past? (which making the testing process easier overall)

or do you mean that in 2013 it will be more difficult to pass smog on a modified car?

thx :beer:

 

[arc00ta]

how so? can you elaborate?

in other words do you mean that as long as it passes the port scan that visual tests and the requirements for carb#'s on equipment will be a thing of the past? (which making the testing process easier overall)

or do you mean that in 2013 it will be more difficult to pass smog on a modified car?

thx :beer:

I'm at work but I'll see if I can find the reference. It would be much easier without a sniffer test, the idea being to reduce the cost to that state of the test stations (they're broke, as usual). So if your computer says smog equipment is good to go, then that would be the end of it, sniffer check only if it fails the port scan. They barely do a glance at the engine bay the last 5 or 6 times I went for smog so I doubt the visual will be much of an issue if you weren't running stock cats.

EDIT:

Arnold signed bill AB2289 in September, and the bill won't go into effect until Jan 1st, 2013. The sniffer test goes away for any car after model year 2000, but the visual test is still exactly the same. Instead of the sniffer, a OBD-II check will be done, and you can pass even w/ 2 readiness codes still present. As far as mods go, any cam will pass now, as long as it is tuned correctly, but LTs, high flow cats, certain air intakes, etc, will still get you a fail.

The good thing is that a lot more power can be made now without having to worry about the sniffer so much. Here's the offical language: http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill...chaptered.html

 

[SlowSVT]

The JBA shorties have a C.A.R.B placard on them and fit exactly like the factory manifold. They won't by you much in power and should be considered as a low restriction exhaust manifold. The nice thing is it not likely the inspector will even see them like LT's and will take any pipe combinations the stock system will accept plus you not dealing with the hassles of LT's.

 

[9secondko]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I am dropping in a new engine, so I figured it was the best time to research exhaust options after hearing the headaches involved with LT headers.

I may go the JBA route now along with the borla Stinger catback at minumum. Surprised to hear the midpipes, even with cats, are illegal. Seems like the stocker would be a bottleneck. But I cannot afford to have any issues with smog. Especially where I live in Irvine. The cops set up smog stations on any random street and pull randomly selected cars off the road to test them on the spot. Not cool.

the upside is that I will save around $500 on the x pipe I was looking at. LOL

thanks much for all of the replies. Extremely helpful.

 

[SlowSVT]

Read my post on this thread regarding the JBA shorties. There are a few "issues" that need to be addressed but it will improve the performance of the headers.

http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/exhaust-215/596743-jba-shorty-headers-vs-long-tube-headers.html