Boss intake manifold and the evil of emissions
 

I am considering the boss intake manifold. I've tried searching everywhere to find out if my car will pass smog in California with this mod. I know many people will say just swap it back when the time comes for a smog check. I'm tired of doing that. I've done It in the past with other cars and it just annoys me. I'd rather just change a part and leave it on. I am hoping someone here knows about this.

Mr. V , good question, unfortunately I don't have an answer. As a fellow goldenstater held captive by the powers that be, I would like to know as well. Did'nt the boss 302 come 50 state emissions legal from the factory?

Boss intake manifold and the evil of emissions
 

I was thinking the same thing. It comes from a car that is smog legal but I don't want to throw it on and end up being angry that I have to go back to the original manifold.

Yes it's legal. Just like Track Key is legal. This is what killed the orginal lopy idle and why it took many months for Boss owners to be able to get track key. Call Ford Racing for the best answer.

https://fordperformanceracingparts.c...ontactfrpp.asp

Boss intake manifold and the evil of emissions
 

Thank you for the suggestion. I have no idea why I didn't think of that. I just got off the phone with them and it's not smog legal. That is a deal breaker for me. I'm more than a little disappointed.

Is that because the intake is not a factory part on the GT? Or are the cats different on the boss 302?

Boss intake manifold and the evil of emissions
 

The rep on the phone said it was due to the tune. There is no way for it to be smog legal. This surprised me because I know galpin motor sports installs this win new cars. I assumed it had to be legal but I wanted to be sure. The rep on the phone said definitely not legal

Don't know about Cali, but here in Tx, I have passed with my Boss IM and on E85.

I was also going to say, just because they say it's not legal does not mean it wont pass. I don't see why you could not just have a "Smog" tune that you spend 5min loading into the car before testing to ensure you pass.


Where there is a will, there is a way!

Boss intake manifold and the evil of emissions
 

It's all with the tuner. All my emission monitors pass in 66 miles on both 93 and E85 tunes.

Boss intake manifold and the evil of emissions
 

California has a visual inspection component to the smog test. You can pass the tail pipe portion and be failed based on visual. They look under the hood and if anything is modified, you fail. I'm not sure if most smog techs would know what the intake manifold should look like. I'm afraid I'd fail the visual and half to put the old intake manifold back on.

Should and will pass just fine. Its an OEM part. When installed correctly, with all the supporting lines installed correctly, it should pass. You are not changing the wet fuel flow path, simply the air. I've been running my Boss on my GT for ~10k mi and never tripped a check engine or wrench light... 100% stock drivability.

Can I just throw a wrench into the equasion here??

Why do you want the Boss manifold? Unless something has changed in the past year or so, the conventional wisdom was that unless you had a built bottom end that could take advantage of ~7500 RPM, the Boss manifold is only going to slow you down.

Remember that the Boss has different rods, pistons crank(?) valuetrain, etc. that allow the motor to rev higher and benefit from that intake.

Just playing the devil's advocate...

Boss intake manifold and the evil of emissions
 

It won't slow you down with the right tune you'll see nice gains above 5500 rpm. The problem is when people that think it will make their car fly with just bolting it on with a canned tune.

Boss intake manifold and the evil of emissions
 

I have 2 reasons that won't sound very impressive but I'll share them. One is that I just love the way it looks. The second is the power delivery seems smoother. I drove a friend's boss and loved the way it felt. I was driven in a gt with the boss intake manifold and a custom tune and it seemed to have that same smooth power delivery. My car seems like a big gob of power smacks you suddenly. I love it now but I think I'd enjoy the boss intake more.

Boss intake manifold and the evil of emissions
 

You just need to find the right smog place, that takes cash and passes your car without even hooking it up to anything ;)

This is because most people just parrot what others say, with no firsthand experience. It's quicker even with the miserable stock gears and converter. ET was ~ the same as stock manifold but mph was 2-3+ The car for sure makes MORE HP with it as evidenced by the higher mph (all else the same)


-Must retune and rev the motor harder than stock (I've had no issues) to make use of it.
-Must port it and clean it up. Mine was from the get go and have no experience with an "out of the box" stock one.
-Better if you have a better matching TB and intake tract.
-WAYYY better to have some gear + converter, Or ALOT of one if not the other ;)

Move to a different state other than Commifornia ...:D

But...but.. it knows how to party! :D

Boss intake manifold and the evil of emissions
 

Let's keep it rockin? :metal: