Help with Cali emissions on 72 350 4, im VERY new aka bought car today!!!

Hi,

So i bought a 72 skylark today, drove it home about an hour drive, and it definitely felt sluggish. Would die while stopped in drive. Well it has cali emissions on it, and single exhaust. I know the compression was dropped for cali cars, but what else was there. There is also a canister on the driver side with 2 tubes running to it. One tube was pulled out and plugged with a pencil?

I didn't want to mess with anything before driving it home, the seller took me for a ride in it and it ran ok. I took a huge risk since the seller never drove it more than a half a mile at most and i drove it home a nice 50 mile drive.

I want to get it running nice again, and put some dual exhaust atleast.

Reached 10 posts, first pic is of the canister and the pencil, the second is of what looks like a second alternator but idk what it is. The belt is completely gone. I guessed it was emissions stuff that someone took off. First pic also shows the alternator looking thing

 

Congrats on the new purchase. Get it all cleaned up and fully road worthy, go over the brakes/suspension carefully since the previous owner never really drove it. I'd go over it throughly and also figure out everything you have to start with and go from there. Engine codes, trans, rear(probaly 2.56 pegleg).

Oh and it sounds like a charcoal canister under the hood. Where do you live check your local emissions standards before removing anything first.

 

Ah you just put the pics up while I was typing, yes the cansiter is indeed charcoal, and the other item is an air pump long since not used. Does the manifolds have the "AIR tubes".

 

One is a charcoal canister other is polutionpump so you need to check be for you remove any thing Gene:TU:

 

Manifold must have the AIR setup , as the pump is present. That shouldn't effect performance. Probably just needs a tune up. There are alot bigger fish to fry than worrying about emissions stuff from the looks of the pictures.

 

On my 73 Century I removed the heads, and plugged the air holes that go into the intake manifold. For the air pump I just removed it and did not use the belt simple as that since it had its own belt.

For the charcoal canister setup it takes vapor from the tank and feeds it to the engine via the air filter housing BUT the charcoal needs to be replaced or the setup will not work properly. This does not hurt the engine and getting rid of it will not help or hurt the engine performance.

The single exhaust is a KILLER on power.... The catalytic converter which is the box before the muffler WILL be partially blocking the flow and needs to be removed. A modern high performance catalytic converter will only cost a few Hp but those old cats are TERRIBLE. I have removed the cats on several smogger 350 cars with great results! Before cat removal the cars ran horrible and even with the same stock single exhaust but no cat the improvement was huge.

Then jumping up to a dual 2.5" dual exhaust is another major improvement.... And with headers added on is even better!

Check out my youtube for my 73 bone stock with exhaust removed and tune up.

 

His car is a 72 and will not have a catalytic converter, even CA cars.

 

I haven't gotten around to the engine yet, i was overly excited when i brought the car home yesterday and jumped right to cutting out the rust at the bottom of the fenders, my only real experience is with bodywork. So today i started with and finished patching the holes up with some sheet metal and smoothed it out with some body filler.
Thanks, im looking forward to everything im going to learn from this project, and have something fun to drive.

I want to remove all the rust from the car first, seal everything up nicely, then hit the engine. I did want to redo the interior, change it from brown to black but funds are low and the interior is in great condition other than the carpet and headliner.


So when i get around to the engine, i can pull both the canister and the pump? Remove the tubing from the canister, and plug it at the tank. then just unbolt the air pump and remove.


I did have a ticking sound from the engine yesterday after the hour and a half drive home. I made a point to listen for it today so i can figure out the problem from the sticky guide but the ticking was gone.

Definitely don't have a cat! to go duals i can just cut the Y pipe and run new piping. How much of a difference does headers make? And what else can i do to make it move, its very slugish although the engine sounds like its running good. im going to put a video or 2 on youtube so give me a minute

 

videos are up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8g_9XqYjXQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojPp10HRl9o

 

Hey Sean,

What do you use to plug these holes?

Thanks,

 

Congrats on your '72 - I just bought a '72 myself a few days ago - post some pics of the car itself when you get a chance.

 

Some brass freeze plugs but not sure on the size of hand.

 

Just a "heads up" for all guys not familiar with Cali. smog check laws...
All model years 1975 and earlier are EXEMPT from smog checks here in Ca. Those smog pumps were used to force feed air into the head to dilute the parts per million of pollutants in the exhaust. They can be left "as is", with no modification (as long as the connections don't leak). Or, if you want to remove the plumbing to the heads, a block-off plate has to be used to seal the entrance port where the tubing connects to the head. I found this out the hard way when I removed mine on a previous car and didn't seal it, resulting in a bad vacuum leak.
Nice score, by the way!

--Chris

 

So other than that extra pump and the lowered compression is anything else different?

Also can the non cali cars run boost from either supercharger or turbo on a stock block and head? IF so id be able to run quite a bit higher boost since the lower compression.

 

You are correct, 8.5:1 is perfect for boosting and the cast pistons seem fine for adding some boost as long as the tune is right. Boosting 6-8 psi on stock engines, should not be a problem. I do plan to run the Turbos on a stock 350 on a chassis dyno this fall before I drop in the good engine.

Up untill 500 hp all the stock parts should be plenty strong enough especially if you keep the revs under 6000 rpms. Over 550 hp the stock rods will be the weak link. I am shooting for over 700 hp so I went with forged rods and pistons, but still using stock crank, stock heads ported, ect so nothing exotic realy. When adding some boost you really do not need great flowing heads to make power, although they would be nice. The VERY the best part about boosting especially with turbos is you can use a small cam and still make great power.

BTW There is a member shooting a 150 shot of nitrous on an old stock 73 low comp 350 and running mid 12s without any problems other than traction!

 

Nothing that I know of other than the air holes in the heads for the pump which can be plugged.

 

Is the compression ratio for the regular 350 8.5:1, or is that for the cali cars?

Also how do i double check its a cali car? i should be able to tell by the vin correct?

 

I would not really worry to much about if it is a cali car or not it will not make a power difference after you block the pump off. There is a two digit letter code on the block deck between number 1 and 3 cylinders of the heads, and that code will tell you the hp and tq rating of the engine so find that and post it and we can tell you what you have. The compression will be 8.5 no matter what.

 

Wait a second, i thought the cali cars had a lower compression ratio, then the regular 350?

 

Not that I know of, post the two digit code on the deck of the block between number 1 and 3 cylinders and we can tell you the compression ratio and HP and TQ rating of the engine as it left factory they stamped this code to show how it was built.