Smog Canister

[twozeez]

New '72 240Z owner trying to get it safety inspected. Recently "rebuilt". The state inspection guys tell me I don't have a smog canister(???) I have never heard or seen anything about a smog canister.

Courtesy Nissan knows what it is....$360!!!! Fill me in guys and tell where I can get one for cheap. How does it connect?

Oh yeah..L28 block, E88 head, 280 electronic ign, '71 SU carbs, stock airfilter.

[2ManyZs]

Since I'm not sure of your smog laws (if any) in Texas, here's the only thing I can think of that they may be referring to. You have an L-28 from a later 280, and the only canister I can think of would be the charcoal canister. It mounted on the passengers side near radiator support.

If you have to abide by the year of the engine, you may have to dig one up out of the junkyard or something.....

[Arizona240z]

They could be refering to the smog pump that runs on the belt line, lower right hand (passenger) side. It's pretty worthless but what can ya do.

Dwight

[twozeez]

How different are the canisters year to year? There is one on Ebay for a 280z. WIll that work on my L28/E88/SU config?

Did the '72 have a smog pump?

[2ManyZs]

The way that is written I would say you only need a smog pump to get the 72 to pass. All Z's had a smog pump, so there is no getting around that:ermm:

[kmack]

Here's a cheaper method: Find a less picky inspection station.

There was a smog pump and all associated plumbing on the '72 cars. Here's what I would do: Pull everything off the car that is associated with the smog/emission stuff. Don't leave anything visible that would draw attention to the fact that these items were removed. Make sure the smog pump mount is off the block, remove your air injection tubes from the exhaust manifold (assuming you're still running a stock manifold), and get rid of the anit-backfire valve. If the guy looking at the engine can see no signs of anything having been removed, then he has no reason to suspect anything was removed.

Then ask around to find out were the more "relaxed" inspection stations are and go there.

Here in San Antonio, they are all on the southside. Most won't even get into the car let alone look under the hood. When I got my car inspected, the guy asked me what the mileage was instead of looking for himself.

Note: this is not to say that my vehicles are unsafe or are not up to vehicle standards in any way. In my opinion, the smo/emission systems on the early Z's did nothing. You can tune the SU's to meet the same emissions standards that the smog pump provided. So why keep it? I just like not having to go through the hassle of some guy telling me what should be on my car when he doesn't even know for sure himself. I mean that bracket hanging off the driver's side of my engine block with nothing attached could be from the A/C system I removed because it didn't work!:nervous:

[zoom240]

I had a 73 240Z in Texas- it had spent most of it's life in TX. The previous owner had removed all of the smog equipment & I never had problems getting it inspected. I thought cars older than 25 yrs were exempt? My rule, never take your car to a place that also does repairs & avoid the shiney new places with lots of overhead to pay off.

[GunnerRob]

All this talk about smog equipment requirements for a 72z sounds so weird to me. Especially after reading so much about mods being done on these cars here on this site!

I'm surprised to hear that Texas is still requiring original smog equipment on this car. California, the land of tree huggers, doesn't even require this stuff on pre-74 cars. I don't know for sure but I thought these exemptions were federally inspired.

If it were me I'd be looking where mperdue is. There may be something in the state code about exemptions for cars that are a certain age or older. I'd cetainly be looking for my ammo there.

Good luck and keep us informed.

Rob

[TomoHawk]

My '78 280Z didn't have any emmissions stuff on it. No smog pump, no catalytic converter. The Haynes book says only Calif. cars had that stuff.

BUT, I'm in Ohio and my 25+ year-old car is now exempt.

Oh yeah-- no air conditioning, either. Another 100 Lbs less stuff to carry around.

[mdbrandy]

Originally posted by TomoHawk

My '78 280Z didn't have any emmissions stuff on it. No smog pump, no catalytic converter. The Haynes book says only Calif. cars had that stuff.

BUT, I'm in Ohio and my 25+ year-old car is now exempt.

Oh yeah-- no air conditioning, either. Another 100 Lbs less stuff to carry around.

Only the carburated cars had the smog (air) pumps. And neither my '75 280Z or '78 280Z had catalytic converters. Only the california cars, as you note. All the electronic controls and sensors on the fuel injected cars are supposed to keep it burning efficiently under "all" conditions, and thus don't need the smog pump, and passed the pre-1979 emissions laws without the cat.

[TomoHawk]

That might explain why it passed the e-check when I got it last summer.