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Failed my CA Smog Test :(

Indy Pace Car Guy

New Member
Well everything was going great until the last part of the test, the evap test. It passed all the other parts of the test. The inspector said it's usually a leak in the system on the old cars. So does anybody know the most common places for a leak on the 79 Mustang with the 302 is that I should check first?
 

Indy Pace Car Guy

New Member
I read somewhere that you should always have a full tank of gas when you go for the test. Mine was less than a 1/4 tank when it failed. Should I fill it up right before the retest?
 

347HO

Active Member
I read somewhere that you should always have a full tank of gas when you go for the test. Mine was less than a 1/4 tank when it failed. Should I fill it up right before the retest?
I'm fairly certain this is a bullshit suggestion. Vacuum is vacuum regardless of volume.

However, bad gas could create more hydrocarbons in certain instances.
 

Indy Pace Car Guy

New Member
Well it's not bad gas. I just installed a new tank and fuel lines when I took it out of a 17 year storage period. So the gas in it is only a couple weeks old.
 

347HO

Active Member
Goes without saying...
You failed for evap.

Its a simple system, so diagnostics should be quick, along with the repair.

Good luck
 

Indy Pace Car Guy

New Member
Yes I did instill a new filler neck grommet. However I used the old grommet on the check valve on the top of the tank. It seemed pretty flexible but now that I think about it, it didn't seem as tight as I thought it should. Oh crap, maybe I need to pull the tank down again. :(
 

Indy Pace Car Guy

New Member
I did a smoke test on the evap system and found leaks in 3 vacuum hoses. The gas cap is fine and the filler neck seal is good as is the vent seal on the top of the tank. So I replaced the 3 vacuum lines. Only other place that I see smoke escaping from is the back of the exhaust gas recirculating valve on the back of the intake manifold. It is coming from around the front side of the valve. I'm not sure if this is normal or not. Should I replace the valve before going back for the test? Or does the EGR valve have nothing to do with evap?
 

347HO

Active Member
I'm not positive here but...
I believe the egr IS a part of the emissions system.
I suggest you replace the part you found to be leaking.

Good luck!
 

Indy Pace Car Guy

New Member
I PASSED smog!!!! Yahoo! So now it's off to the DMV to finish up the registration, I did replace the EGR valve with a NOS one I found on eBay. The old one was definitely bad, rusted and nearly frozen up. Replacing that smoothed out the idle also. Next issue is the wheels, tires and brakes. The original owner had replaced the TRX wheels with a set of BBS wheels and tires that look Ok but I want the original look. He did give me the original wheels but the tires are 40 years old. Since the original Michelin TRX tires are $1500 I decided to buy a set of the 16" reproductions from LMR. I just got them a few days ago and wow are they gorgeous. Good job LMR!!! So I just ordered a set of 225 55 16 tires. Can't wait to get them mounted up and on the car. My last issue is a spongy brake pedal. It kind of amazes me that 40 year old brake work at all even though the car has only 26K miles. So I put her on stands and pulled the wheels off. Plenty of pad and shoe left but all the rubber parts have seen better days and the rotors and drums are badly rusted. So I ordered ALL new parts. Calipers, wheel cylinders, master cylinder, etc. I was able to find Power Stop drilled and slotted rotors at a great price. A weird thing about the calipers is that every parts place has driver side calipers in stock but nobody has right sides. I searched every parts house I could find. All had left side but none had the right. Finally found NPD with 1 right in stock. So I ordered it. So as soon as all my brake parts get here I will do a complete brake overhaul. Then it's off to the car shows. I'm pretty sure it will get a lot of attention. Not to many people have seen a Pace Car in person. It amazed me I have watched several FOX body shows on You Tube that had several hundred Foxes in attendance buy not one single Pace Car in the group. Ford built around 5000 of them so I would have thought more of them would still be around. I guess not. Well I'll post up some pictures when the old girl gets her new shoes on.
 

broncojunkie

Well-Known Member
Ford built over 10k! Unfortunately, a lot of them were scrapped due to rust in the front frame rails, roof, and floors. If you haven't already, I would suggest clearing out the 4 drain tubes in the sunroof area!

Congratulations on getting her legal!

There is a guy who has a pace car registry online. You might feel inclined to look it up and see if yours is listed. In fact, I need to do the same. I added my first pace car, but haven't checked the one I picked up recently.
 

pi_surfer

New Member
Indy Pace Car Guy, I'll be going through the same process soon. Did you have to replace your catalytic converter or are you using your stock cat? thank you.
 

Indy Pace Car Guy

New Member
I was able to use the stock cat. I didn't have to do anything with the exhaust. I did have to replace the EGR valve if you consider that part of the exhaust, I am planning on swapping out the muffler with a Flowmaster just to get a better sound.
 
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