1976 Is it a 49 state or Cali car? Options

[gnomefabtech]

Car came from Nevada but I can't tell if it was originally a California car. It still has injection but doesn't have a cat or smog pump. Doesn't look like it ever had either but I'm wondering since I'm going to try and register it here in California. Thanks in advance!!

Here is the Vin:

[gnomefabtech]

If you live in CA DO NOT purchase a 76 914 I am going through hell to get mine smog. I would find another year 914 but I have owned mine since the 80s.

As far as I know the key is that if it's a 49 state model than I don't need a cat and the restrictive exhaust that goes with it. Still need the smog pump though.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this. As far as I know this car is a Nevada native and I'll be the first to bring it into Ca..

[JORACER#40]

If you live in CA DO NOT purchase a 76 914 I am going through hell to get mine smog. I would find another year 914 but I have owned mine since the 80s.

As far as I know the key is that if it's a 49 state model than I don't need a cat and the restrictive exhaust that goes with it. Still need the smog pump though.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this. As far as I know this car is a Nevada native and I'll be the first to bring it into Ca..

The Smog Pump is the is the most difficult to deal with. first the heads must have threaded holes into the each exhaust port only on 75 76. Next the pump brackets and pully usually have been removed along with the EGR.
I think all 76 were built in 75 form the left over parts from the 75 run.

Even if you get all the parts next is getting the 50 year old FI and ignition to work perfectly for the test. it is hit and miss. I had it down to a science until I didn't. Now I am replacing all the parts I know are on the edge of spec. It is costing me more to fix my FI then to purchase an aftermarket FI which would do a much better job at reducing bad emissions.

Sorry for being a downer but I have not been able to drive my 914 for a while just because I can not pass smog.

[wonkipop]

If you live in CA DO NOT purchase a 76 914 I am going through hell to get mine smog. I would find another year 914 but I have owned mine since the 80s.

As far as I know the key is that if it's a 49 state model than I don't need a cat and the restrictive exhaust that goes with it. Still need the smog pump though.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this. As far as I know this car is a Nevada native and I'll be the first to bring it into Ca..

The Smog Pump is the is the most difficult to deal with. first the heads must have threaded holes into the each exhaust port only on 75 76. Next the pump brackets and pully usually have been removed along with the EGR.
I think all 76 were built in 75 form the left over parts from the 75 run.

Even if you get all the parts next is getting the 50 year old FI and ignition to work perfectly for the test. it is hit and miss. I had it down to a science until I didn't. Now I am replacing all the parts I know are on the edge of spec. It is costing me more to fix my FI then to purchase an aftermarket FI which would do a much better job at reducing bad emissions.

Sorry for being a downer but I have not been able to drive my 914 for a while just because I can not pass smog.

your thinking is correct re 76 being built from the same parts as 75.
with exactly the same pollution gear and settings.
the CARB executive orders prove/confirm that. zero difference.
gives you slightly wider scope for sourcing missing bits for the 76.
you can go shopping for 75 cal spec 2.0s in junkyards etc for those missing bits.
it strikes me the EGR might be a tricky beast. its got a vac operated valve.
a bit like decel valve and fuel pressure regulator, the diaphragm can fail, spring weakens etc. i am unsure how the EGR kicked in on a 2.0 but i know for a fact how it worked on a 1.8. it only activated via the vacuum port above the throttle plate. its vac connection was only to that port. it used the same vac connection that 74 49 state 1.8s used for vacuum advance on distributor. so it only opened at high vac steady state running at cruise. part throttle open. did not open at idle or wider throttle openings while accelerating. i could be wrong but i would imagine the 2.0s were similar? not sure what the contemporary smog tests are like in california, but they are not going to pick up a functioning EGR with an idle test. but they might pick it up with a steady state higher rev test. but if its only a visual examination it has to pass, ie original equipment is still installed you might get over the line. as far as i know the EGR lowered NoX at cruise/
and assisted the engine to run cooler at cruise and slightly assisted fuel economy. it helped to offset the hotter temps around the exhaust valve due to the slightly retarded timing at cruise.
maybe it might have burned a few hydrocarbons but the CAT was supposed to take care of those along with the psuedo thermal reactor heat exchangers.

interestingly the 1976 912 E with the same 2.0 engine and L jet fitted did not have a CAT, instead it was fitted with "proper" thermal reactors (same as 911s of that era). these were an alternative to CATS. they were like two cylindrical cans that the exhaust stub pipe outlets fed directly into and hung under the car. those cans get very hot but worked ok on the rear engined porsches as they hung under the car in the airstream. 912E owners have got a similar problem in california. thermal reactors are unobtainable except by finding one on a junked car that might still be not corroded out.

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interesting side note on the clean air act.
by end of calendar year 1975 they had not achieved the 90% reduction in NoX, HC and CO that the act originally set as the levels for the deadline. they just got as far as they could get to and the USEPA agreed. there were small incremental tightenings each year all the way to 1980 because the EPA understood that the last bit could not be achieved without the EFI systems going closed loop.

they had to wait until Bosch finished developing the O2 sensor. which they did in 1980.
at that point the USEPA and the automakers resumed the process to work towards the 90% reduction the 1970 act aimed for.

all interesting stuff in the context of air pollution.
i am old enough to remember my stinging eyes and the taste in my mouth riding my bicycle to university here in the late 1970s and early 80s. brown air. always happened in the hot summertime. long gone.
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