After recently purchasing my dream evo 9. I took the car into to get smog from a place I know. We weren't able to smog because the system pop up the message "This vehicle can only be certified by a referee".
The car has quite a lot of mods. I feel devastated and currently I have two choices to make now, either sell the car to an out of state buyer or put all necessary stock parts back on to pass inspection. I would have to buy all the stock parts and hire someone to change out the parts. I love this car very much and i'm trying to debate if it makes sense to convert all necessary part back to stock. I don't want to spend a fortune. I have searched on this forum, facebook and even offerup but there aren't much used parts for sale for the evo9 like there use to. Do you guys think its worth the hassle and money to put all these parts back to stock? I read somewhere in another thread that someone mentioned registering the car in South Dakota. Do I have any other options?

I'm going to list all the mods and attached a picture of the engine bay for everyone to see and give me suggestion on what stock parts I need to change or what can remain to pass inspection. Thank you in advance for the help.

GSC S2 Cams ( will running the stock tune affect the noise of these cam, etc?)
Buchur Baffle oil pan ( can this be kept?)
2150 FIC injectors ( will the ref see this?)
Walbro450 ( will the ref see this?)
FP red Turbo with Tial wastegate ( do I need to get the stock turbo and BOV?)
FP exhaust manifold with stock heat cover (can this be kept since it looks like stock?)
Injen intake pipe with carb sticker
Turbo smart BOV ( removing)
AMS intercooler ( does this need to be change or the intercooler hoses?)
Mishimoto radiator ( Does radiator need to be stock?)
Coil pack ( will the oem spark cover hide these?)
Test Pipe ( will need a cat)
Not sure if down pipe is stock
It seem like the EGV is deleted
Car on speed density and no MAF sensor

Please let me know if i'm missing anything.

 

You should have taken it to RRE before going to get it smogged. They would have told ya what is needed. Those stations just love to flag this stuff so they get logged-in for the flag

Yeah, youre definitely a ways off from passing IMO

GSC S2 Cams ( will running the stock tune affect the noise of these cam, etc?) = Not sure how these cams work on a stock tune but ive heard the lope can be dialed out a bit. Taking a chance leaving those in!
Buchur Baffle oil pan ( can this be kept?) = Not familiar w/that pan. Is it stock appearing?
2150 FIC injectors ( will the ref see this?) = Pretty sure a Referee worth his salt will spot that easily
Walbro450 ( will the ref see this?) Should be OK
FP red Turbo with Tial wastegate ( do I need to get the stock turbo and BOV?) = Thats gotta to go, both the turbo & WG
FP exhaust manifold with stock heat cover (can this be kept since it looks like stock?) = Maybe OK but taking a chance
Injen intake pipe with carb sticker = Missing MAF is an issue!
Turbo smart BOV ( removing) = Yep, thats gotta go!
AMS intercooler ( does this need to be change or the intercooler hoses?)
Mishimoto radiator ( Does radiator need to be stock?) = Pretty sure that is OK
Coil pack ( will the oem spark cover hide these?) = Not sure the cover will fit over the pack but worth a try
Test Pipe ( will need a cat) = Yep!
Not sure if down pipe is stock = Unlikely the DP is stock! Its gotta go!
It seem like the EGV is deleted = Are you referring to the PCV? Im sure they would spot that missing!
Car on speed density and no MAF sensor = Missing MAF is an issue

 

So the car was flagged for ref inspection from the get go? That's what it sounds like what your saying anyway. If so that's pretty ****ty someone got flagged and then sold you the car and didn't say anything. You might have some legal recourse if that's the case.

 

For the Ref:
This info is to the best of my knowledge. I'm not a smog professional or anything and this is just stuff I have put together from my own research and experience. I could be mistaken, laws could have changed etc. so you should do some independent research of your own before the inspection. Of course you can roll the dice on any given part but State Refs are known to be brutal.

Ignition system mods, like COP are smog legal. Altering ignition timing is not, but using different coils etc is fine.
Any pre-cat exhaust mods are not legal, you will need stock downpipe, 02 housing, Turbo*, Exhaust Manifold.
All Emissions related systems need to be stock and functional. You will need the stock MAF, EGR, PCV, CAT, EVAP systems working properly. Catch cans alter PCV and are not legal. The tune needs to be stock. So even if you could camo the injectors the car wouldn't run on them. The fuel lines, rail, regulator need to be stock, or at least stock appearing. If you have a CARB Exemption for the intake that can stay. The Recirc valve (Blowoff valve) needs to be stock. The car is not likely to run without throwing a CEL with cams but you could give it a try. All applicable emissions monitors need to be ready and pass, and there can't be any OBD Trouble codes. The oil pan doesn't effect emissions and AFAIK should be fine. The fuel pump should be fine as long as it doesn't cause a CEL with the stock tune. Aftermarket intercoolers are legal but the piping all needs to be stock, including the couplers. The clamps don't need to be stock, t-bolt are fine. Cooling system mods are fine, radiators, hoses etc. wont effect smog.

* Mitsubishi makes the MHI 18k which is probably stock appearing enough to pass, but a super **** inspector could check the part number.

 

I bolded what needs to go back to stock. And the biggest thing you need is the OEM tune, oem MAP sensor, EGR and all smog equipment.
Also, remove all your gauges, especially an AFR gauge.

 

Cams need to go back to stock. The idle vacuum is 18 mmHg vs S2 at 12 mmHg. When they connect to ecu while engine is idling, state will know cams are not stock.

And they will enter your stock turbo code into computer so you need to have oem turbo cover.

Also, check your ECU VIN. So many evos here in So Cal are modded to badly that you may not even have your original ECU.

 

My 2 cents:

 

Interesting stuff with the cams. I figured the chance of passing wasnt good but I figured some allowance might be made for an older engine as long as a cell wasn't tripped. It sounds like your experience says otherwise though.

 

I just passed state ref. They look for anything shiny to claim it is aftermarket and illegal. Even my oem downpipe was claimed to be aftermarket because it is so clean. I argued and they finally gave in. They already failed our evos before they even open our hoods. It is an uphill battle because it looks fast.

 

I used to have to Google pictures of stock Evos to prove to smog techs that our braided IC couplings are stock.
I didn't need a hook up to pass smog, but it sure would've been nice to have one that wouldn't give me **** for all my stock parts.
OP: like everyone said, get everything visual, from the air box to cat converter, back to stock. Swap any parts that can't run on a stock tune back to stock, visual or not. Get your stock ROM reflashed onto your ECU, since they check for that, now. Good luck! The state has a serious boner for our cars.

 

Thanks for the info Minus.

The previous owner had RRE disable all the monitors and were all forced to pass.

Sorry, I meant EGR not EGV.

 

All? There are a bunch of things our cars didn't come with. Setting everything to pass is a sure way to get flagged.

I find it hard to believe that RRE would be that careless though. Still probably worth checking into, a cheap OBD scanner should be able to tell you which monitors are ready/pass.

 

Yeah, the car was flagged from the get go. I believe the previous owner genuinely didn't know it was flagged in the system. He has been working with me after I told him about the problem. On the Bar website, we get this info about the car.

 

Sorry, I meant they force all that was necessary to pass and not everything. My smog guy plugged his device into the car and everything was good.

 

Based on the publicly available information from Cal BAR they weren't going to start automated CAL ID / CVN verification until this month. So the irregularities that got the car flagged were likely either an incorrect VIN number in the ECU or incorrect monitors for the vehicle being set. For example our cars don't have a heated catalyst or secondary air system, so if those are set as ready/pass that will definitely be a red flag.