As many people know California is a horrible place to tune due to the Carb Legal requirements and Smog checks that are required for registration. Unfortunately i have fell into the California scene (due to military transfer) and am being black flagged for the first time (in my life) due to "illegal mods" (PCV breather filter, no OBDII plate on my Cat, and no Carb legal sticker for my intake) . I am trying to seek out the california crowd or ay other state that may assist me with how you actually build a car and still stay carb legal/smog friendly. Can anyone help me out here ?

go to www(dot)evoempire(dot)org

there you will find all your answers

have a cat, and go to speed shops around california. tune. emmissions are a pain, but theres plenty of people around that have high horsepower evos. on 91.

You should be able to register your car in your home of record via the mail.

Being a military member you can pretty much change your state of residency to any state you desire, make sure you have some sort of address there... and don't go in half cocked, have your story and stuff together... you just have to have your record updated... Once that is done you can apply for registration in that state, it may be a bit of a hastle doing all the leg work to change your state of residence, but far less red tape then trying to mod your car in California..

Been in the Navy for 12 years, and I have been registered in FL for 11 and it definitely helped in Washington State...

I live in northern cali and have been concerned with the same thing. Being under the radar with the CHP and sometimes literally. I have a few suggestions.

1. Keep as much of the original smog equipment on as possible. I got the Works stealth cat which is an OEM cat with 3 inch pipe welded on. Gut that sucker if you want a very stealth test pipe.

2. Intake ideas. I did the stock airbox mod. Search here and you will see several threads on it. You basically cut the stock box enough to fit a cone filter inside. Not totally stealth but the officer looking at your car would REALLY have to be picking it apart to find out. You could always go with AEM CARB legal intake. You could use almost any filter preferably without some logo on it (speed element OMG?) cuz it's the pipe that has the CARB sticker.

3. I don't think the PCV breather is quite a necessity so for now I would just remove it all together.

Lastly remember being within the law begins with appearing to be within the law. If you are not sticking out like a sore thumb you won't be as likely to be targeted in the first place. I've had my Evo here since I bought it in '07 and only been pulled over for tinted front side windows. I have since removed the tint and now I appear to be legal.

Hope this helps.

Out of state plates, thats what i do. (military also)

pretty sure ill never move to cali...missouri and knowing a guy at a shop is nice,
i have never been pulled over and had a cop make sure i have a cat( nor have i ever heard of it happening)

No smog testing for residents of Healdsburg, Ca. FYI
you smog it once when you first buy the car, then no more.

let me add my 0.02, first thing your only gonna have a problem if your driving like a jackass then you gotta worry about getting pulled over. Second, dont tell anyone but my **** is the furthest from smog compliant of about any vehicles here in cali. haha, As far as your mods go, test pipe isnt a big deal, since its underneath the car ive been pulled over multiple times, as well as multiple times hood being popped never once did they look underneath the car. Now with that pcv filter, that is in essence a mod of your emission equipment which is an instant fail, however if you were to go out and buy an oil catch can, that will do a better job then the filter of catchin blowby. As far as catch can goes, nothin in laws says its illegal, cuz it improves emissions. As far as your intake goes, I dunno what brand you have, but for piece of mind like someone posted earlier either do the stock airbox hack mod, Or buy an AEM which is 50 state legal like mine. Now as far as being smog compliant, ive been to the state ref with cams a built engine boltons and fpred. See if your gonna dd your vehicle in cali, gotta go for the stealth, look dont make it easy for mr popo to find your mods. So black painted intercooler piping, stock lookin exhaust manifold etc. As far as smogging goes, in cali its every other year, but as long as you have a test pipe, instead of a cat delete downpipe (smh), then swap it in go get smogged and your good. Nice thing about our cars, is idle and 3500 rpms...thats our smog test and thats it because were AWD. Well there ya go man if you have more questions holla or pm me.

The way I do it; every two years get under there and swap stuff in and out. The good thing is that if that's all of your mods, you're an easy fix to pass and you just have to source a few parts. The two biggest things needed to pass are the intake and stock cat. If your downpipe can't fit a stock cat, then you'll need one that does. The PCV thing is just a hose from the valve cover to the intake.
Where are you located? You might be able to find some locals here;
http://www.socalevo.net/index.php?op...=37&board=33.0

like the navy guys said change your address to something not cali. There are tons of states that dont have emissions at all. Secondly you can do a military excemption for 5 bucks to register your car. Trying to get it done is cali is going to be the death of that car. Because most cali cars have extra emissions stuff added and you would need to add those to the car if you plan on living there.

I believe Komifornia and Federal Evo's run the same emissions equip.

Evo empire is down

I was just on, worked fine for me.