nj inspection issues.
 

alright i recently bought a truck a 1986 GMC K10 that has been a southern truck all its life, in South Carolina, where they don't smog test. this truck has a newer carbureted 350 engine in it, crate engine. but appears to have the original quadrajet. but also the truck has no cats and long tube headers but new stainless steel mufflers. ( pretty quiet) i know there's certain standards they set for older carb'ed vehicles, but I'm not sure whether i should take this thing through inspection when i register it right away AS IS and see if they catch it with the tailpipe test or not. is there a guarantee that I'll probably read way too high?any good trusty inspection places better than the free ones in the NW NJ area? also i have no idea what else is done to the engine though, but it defintately has an aftermarket cam..

If you're not planning to use it as a daily driver, just put QQ plates and classic insurance on it and be done with it. If you want to DD the truck, you'll have to make it pass the sniffer test. From the bit of reading I did online, '86 Chevy trucks didn't have the CCC carb and electronic distributor, like what was in passenger cars. They just had a regular conventional carb with a vacuum advance distributor. So in theory, if you put a good cat in the exhaust and make sure the carb is dialed in right, you ~might~ be able to pass a sniffer test.

Without cats, you are not getting through. Depending on the cam, that will hurt as well.

This.

You will not pass w/out cats..system will detect it. I will tell you one thing, i have never (knock on wood) failed from the Newton facility yet..they are good people up there, no lines and quick (bird failed the gas cap test but they retried it again to make it pass). Get the cat on and go upthere...or throw qq on it...there aren't too many places on the dl anymore to my knowledge.

sent you a pm too.

Too bad it's not a k20 IIRC 86 was the last year without cats.

What?

Feds mandated cats in 73 didn't they, so how can 86 be the last pre cat year? Unless rules were different for trucks.

We've had problems with the people in Newton revving the **** out of cars for the tailpipe tests. My sister complained her car was smoking and everything when they did it (this car didn't smoke or anything when she pulled up). My brother's MR2, they didn't even bother to test, because they couldn't get a reading, and wouldn't list to my brother on the engine's location, they insisted it was a front engined car......

I'm a lil nervous on taking the GTA up there due to the valve seals. But I've not seen any reason why the GTA should not pass if I drive it around and restart it to reset the check engine light if it comes on. It doesn't smoke at all other than initial start up. But because its an 88, I'm gonna just put QQs on it come January if it does fail.

Yup, I thought 84 was the last year because my brother had, actually still has an 84 K20 factory no cats leaded gas fill tube but then my cousin bought an 86 K20 no cats and regular leaded gas fill tube. These trucks had heavy duty emissions.

Heavy duty trucks were way different rules.

This is true to a point. It all depend on the GVWR and the emissions laws in the year manufactuered. However I don't think that rule will apply here. No cats=guy at inspection station LOLing. Also I wouldn't state anything about it have a crate motor, they kind of frown on that. There is an acceptable engine swap guideline out there in which the state put out

Yeah, a K10 isn't going to cut it without a cat.

Wow, I did not know that. I guess above a certian GVWR you had different rules.

L69...u should be fine in newton....no more dyno so they only need to bring rpms up slightly for idle test up to 2500-3k...new folks up there last time i went though..not any car guys. u could try your luck in wayne but theres akways a line.

I know a guy who does randolph. He said as long as I drive it around for a bit and the light is out I should pass if its not smoking and no signs of running rich.

Anyway back on topic, I heard the rules were different when it came to trucks, wasn't sure though. However, I think most inspection people don't care, and if it doesn't have cats they will fail it.

With regards to cats, there are 2 specific questions asked. Was the vehicle originally equipped with catalytic converters? Yes/No If you click yes, the program then asks Are the catalytic converters correctly installed? Yes/No

When I did an LT1 swap on my 1979 Z28 Camaro, I had trouble getting it to pass, even with an emissions-friendly camshaft and two high flow catalytic converters and the stock EFI. It had a bad knock sensor causing it to run a bit rich and didn't pass emissions until I found out that it was bad. Even with EFI and stock camshaft I doubt it would pass without cats.

8600 GVWR.

I took my truck to inspection last week. My truck has always ran great and was running great on the way there but by the time they it pulled through the inspection lane i could hear the truck running like crap and they failed it. There was no one but me and another car at inspection and they took a half hour to check the emissions. Two employees there had the hood open and were also screwing around under the dash. Long story short after they failed it, i limped it the short way home running like crap and let it sit for a few days depressed because i was convinced they f***** around with something.

My brother came over and i told him i think the timing somehow got advanced and it was running rich or something. Needless to say he has more automotive experience than i do and said let me hear it run. So i started it up and it turned out one of the spark plug boots was pulled off. There's no was to prove it but i really feel the pos at the inspection station pulled it so i would have to bring it back. From what i understand i think they get paid by the amount of inspections they do?? If thats the case I'm just pissed they wasted my time...

btw truck runs great again with all cylinders firing :rolleyes:

I could only see that happening if it was a private garage back in the day to get your coin..theres no reason for them to fail a perfectly functioning car....they should be paid salary. All they ever did for me is enter vin in computer, place a reader on the vin by the windshield pillar, sniffer in the tailpipe and rev engine to desired rpm..then pull up for the visual under car camera (not in that order), pressurized test of gas cap and your done.

Is there any reason to have the hood open and be screwing around under the dash?

Should an emission inspection take a half hour?

Ive take my other truck and my wife's car there in the past and its only take 10-15 minutes once they start the emissions check...

They had to open the hood to get a lead on a plug wire to read rpm. They could have knocked out off, but it probably would have been loose in the first place.

reading your 1st line did it start tuning bad before the pulled it in?

They were inside the car under the dash?

Truck drove normal on the way there. Was running normally up until the point I got my documents handed back and i stepped out to go wait for them to check it. At some point from when they took it from wen i got it back i assume that the spark plug boot got knock off or pulled off.

Yes. They were under the dash for a few minutes. That was the point in which i was like wtf are they doing?!

Would they check the obd under the dash at inspection?

What year is said truck? Sorry if I missed it.

1997

This makes no sense, 1997 should be OBD2 which is just a scan test, so dunno wtf they were doing under your hood. Unless they were extremely diligent works checking for emissions equipment.

And AFAIK, the state contracted the inspection centers so any time they failed a car, they made more money, which is why the state changed it back to what it is now. Not sure how it works now.