Which exhausts are legal in California?

[SubSolar]

I know when it comes to headers we can only have shorties, no longtubes. But I'm confused on the rest of the exhaust. It seems the after axle exhausts are legal, but what about the ones that change the cats, resonators, X-pipe, etc. What do the CA laws say about those?

[Mindz]

Anything that has a CARB sticker (CARB certification number) is street legal. If it doesn't have certification, then it's not legal.

Simple answer.

[SubSolar]

OK, which ones have the sticker currently? Any?

[Milk 1027]

all the ones I know of are CARB cerified.

[SubSolar]

Originally Posted by Milk 1027

all the ones I know of are CARB cerified.

Cool, so any of the exhaust systems that leave the headers alone are OK? Like the Stainless Works?

[Milk 1027]

yeah. I don't know of any company that does non-CARB legal exhausts.(except for the "off-road" packages obviously)
Thay would just be losing out on a huge market.

[Mindz]

Best bet is to ask the company or see if you can find a "off road use only" warning on advertisements

[2010SSRSM6]

You have to keep the "Cats" for smog reasons, other than that, its at the officers "discression" as to the volume of your exhaust. I was "warned" for having Flowmaster's American Thunder exhaust on my 5.0 Rustang, just some food for thought.

I'm pretty sure all manufactures list the C.A.R.B. # on all their products that carry that #. Most "X" pipes do not have cat's, so they are not for use on cars that require smog checks.

I have a "friend" that kept his stock exhaust and installed it for special trips to the smog station.

[radz28]

Originally Posted by SubSolar

I know when it comes to headers we can only have shorties, no longtubes. But I'm confused on the rest of the exhaust. It seems the after axle exhausts are legal, but what about the ones that change the cats, resonators, X-pipe, etc. What do the CA laws say about those?

I think pretty much anything you do after the OEM cats' is okay. I've been to the ref' three times, andthe only time I had a problem with the exhaust itself was the cutout I had in the Borla; he didn't like that, LOL. He didn't ask for a sticker or plate or anything. I don't think you'll have to worry about anything after the cats' though; just keep any by-passes/cutouts off the car when you go in.

As far as noise goes, when I got a ticket for my volume, the ref' stuck the probe just a few feet away from the tips on the CB and ran the engine to about 4000 RPMs. My Borla, with the plate in it, FAILED... I tried to find the SAE method for testing but couldn't really find exactly what I thought I was looking for. I believe the method said that the engine was to be tested at half of the red-line limit. Obviously, my car shouldn't have been tested at the RPMs it was at, but I never tried to follow-up. The ref' was cool and just said to pay the $30 (or whatever it was) fine and call it a day.

It's my opinion and experience that you should be able to change the manifolds for any CARB-legal shorties and whatever catback you like. I'd just be careful of Loudmouths - LM II, not as much, but definately the LMs. I seriously doubt even changing the manifolds to shorties is going to give much change in exhaust volume because when I finally put shorties on my car, the sound was not nearly the same as with LTs. Anyways, I think you just have to pay attention to what's in front of the cats', smog-wise, and just watch the volume of the CB.