Need to smog in california

socal_dave

New member
Hi all, I just bought my first jeep, an 89 yj. The guy I bought it from replaced his exhaust manifold with a performance header and the carburetor with a weber. I have the 4.2l 6cy btw.

In california, pretty much anything that deals with fuel or exhaust has to be approved by the california air resources board (carb). So to pass smog I have to rip that stuff out and replace it with carb legal gear. yay!

I have a replacement manifold on the way, the problem I'm looking at now is how to avoid paying 300$ for a crappy carter BBD. I've been able to find it cheaper than that but still over 150$, I REALLY want to avoid paying that for something I'm probably just going to take back off and store until I need to smog the jeep again in two years.

So I have a few questions:

Are there any upgrades that are approved by carb (the board, not the part)? I'd much rather buy something that I like and want to leave on.

does anybody know of a place to source a cheap carter bbd? Hell, I'd even pay some cash for a loaner :)

Along with the carburetor I'm also going to need the stock air cleaner and what nots. I found one that says it doesn't include ambient or hot air ducts. I'm not sure what either of those are just yet :) Any advice on this?

thanks for reading, dave.
 

Oh God, I bought a 1984 CJ7 4.2 with all the smog stuff ripped out and trying to track down all the parts and make it pass CA smog was a nightmare. Doable, but a nightmare depending on how much smog stuff has been removed already. The hot air duct is for the heated air intake (yay!) that sucks hot air off the manifold while the engine warms up. 4.2L's also had a pulse air system that pumps air into the exhaust before and at the cat. I would keep an eye on ebay and craigslist for parts, and get a manual and use that as a reference for the emissions system. If you want a permanent replacement for the Webber, you could just buy a fuel injection kit and that will make your Jeep CA smog exempt and would, well, give you fuel injection. If I had to do it all over again I would just spend the extra money and convert the engine to fuel injection...and at the same time swap on a 4.0L head and pick up some HP.
 
thanks for the tips gary.

I don't think it's too bad. I have an air cleaner on the way now, I went ahead and bought that one on ebay. Hopefully I can track down the other junk or dont need it. I paid 50 bucks total which I still think is too much for a throw-a-way piece. scottys, a junk yard here in socal had one for 125!!! THIEVES. I've dealt with them in the past, THEIVES THEN TOO. Just saying, scotties has a lot of stuff but they won't think twice to jerk you around..

Anyway, I have a line on a 100$ carb as well, I think this puts me pretty close, maybe a hose or two...

I'm down for the fuel injection mod, someday. My impression is that it runs about a grand to do it. I'm just trying to get this thing transferred into my name right now!! FI down the road... :)
 
If you are looking for smog parts, J&W Auto wreckers in Antelope has everything you’ll need used. I had the same issues with my ’79 CJ7. All emission controls on my CJ had been stripped off. Had to replace everything. J&W sells all the parts as a kit for $800 or you get just those parts that you need. They have over 10 acres of just Jeep parts out there. Great place to go when you have nothing to do.
 
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