federal vs cali emissions differences

[zeebo]

hi there..anyone know what the differences are between 49 state and California emission controls on our 87 turbo buicks? my invoice says cali emissions was a $99 option.

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Back then it would have been slightly tighter rules on hydrocarbons and NOX emissions. The $99 option probably got you a slightly different chip calibration with higher EGR duty cycles to pull the NOX down some more.

Or it may have just been a way for GM to take 99 extra dollars from you. If you still have the original chip, you could ask somebody like Eric Marshall to read it and see if it had any differences from a regular stock chip.

 

[earlbrown]

Pretty sure gnttype has a california chip in the stock chip section. That's probably the only difference. Oddly enough these cars were clean enough at the time to pass GA emissions with a gutted cat in the late 90's.