I understand. No worries here in Indiana. You have a lot XF's in CA...and I am sure they will chime in.

 

Go for the invisible mods. Crank pulley or supercharger pulley. No one will know except Crossfire/AMG experts and even then, they may not. A tune is also invisible as far as I know. That will get you flying. Don't bother with the exhaust unless you want to change the sound. Well, dumping the cats nets impressive gains. I get the feeling it's not feasible for you. Needwings makes a CAI that really works BUT not CA smog approved. BTW, I pass smog in my neck of the woods with headers and no cats. At idle it's at the maximum limit but up to now, its passed.

Les

 

hi dave- Welcome aboard!! no worries about the Needswings DCAI or the Eurcharged Tune, i purchased BEEP BEEP Brian's SRT6 Roadster in June of 2013, and she passed California State Smog Certification with flying colors!! By the way Brian is from Houston, Texas and I am from Lakewood, Ca. Doc

 

Thanks guys, I'm taking it all into consideration. California is so weird, my old standby smog station just installed this new machine, which he said Sacramento recently required? It flagged a CA approved breather which his shop had previously approved - twice before. I also have two new CNG Honda Civics and an '04 E350 cargo van on CNG (compressed natural gas) even with 70,000 miles on the van, the tail pipe looks brand new, you can wipe your finger inside it and nothing gets on them, dead serious, the Honda's are rated the cleanest/greenest cars made, and I still have to have all three smogged?? The oil never gets dirty in those cars. The only good thing CA did was make pre-70 cars exempt - hence all my old and modified cars

Yet it's my home state, (my daughter is the sixth generation of a small town in Central California) and I love the beauty of the state. I have two places on the coast, one in Pismo Beach and the other, Cambria. Driving HWY 1 between them and on up to Monterey, well it just doesn't get much better. Of course, driving up 180 to the giant redwoods (about 45 min from my house) is pretty good too! I know there are a lot of beautiful places in this country but dang, driving the coast, the mountains, Lake Tahoe, or Yosemite sure makes you appreciate what you have.

Dave

 

I thought I should add, after reading my last post, that although I appreciate being green, I bought the CNG vehicles for economics I get an average (sometimes more) of 20 miles for a dollar in the civics. With gas around 4 bucks, I'm averaging an 'effective' 80 miles per gallon (apples to apples). On my van, fully loaded (about 1,200 pounds for me) I average 9 miles for a dollar, or an effective 36 mpg if gas is a dollar, if gas goes up, it just averages more.

I drove my van, fully loaded, from Fresno to Las Vegas, stayed there a week, (I have a booth in the SEMA Show) and drove home, for $105 total. When I fill up my civics, I rarely go over $10.

Dave