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[crazypete]

As I hinted before, practically nothing is legal. I have seen holley carbs complete with egr and pcv nozzles stamped not legal for use on emissions controlled vehicles.

As for actually passing, if you have cats and o2 sensors, I do not believe anyone will give you trouble about it unless they dont like you to begin with. I cannot imagine the lovely state of california being filled with hotrods rodding around on stock exhaust. Think about it that way. The first thing to go on any mustang is usually the exhaust. Plenty of stangs in CA which means the shop guys are used to seeing lots of aftermarket exhaust.

I took my car to a ford dealer once and I got nitpicked on everything. I took it to a local shop where the guys have done a lot of installs for me before and they passed it to keep me happy and keep my business. Technically, I think the blue lightbulbs for the headlights are illegal here too but I see every 10th car driving around with them. It's all about who you go to.

I think the point of all these regulations is to give "the man" an excuse to stop anyone anytime. You dont have to take them all seriously and most mechanics dont.

UNLESS the inspections are done at state centers (RI I think does it that way). Then you'll have some official ignoramous looking at the bottom of your car and he'll see something shiny and fail you in all probability to cover his butt just in case.

Just my thoughts. I say go for it. You only live once. There has to be more than 1 cool mechanic in your area.