I have a chance to buy a 1980 K20 pickup from the original owner. A slide underneath - A CAT?? Under the hood - AIR PUMP? EGR?? CHARCOAL CA?NISTER?? The sticker shows all that garbage has to be there. Oh my aching gas mileage.
The caps are not to be shouting but to show my amazment at finding all the emphysema garbage under the hood of a 3/4 ton of that year.
I am in Ontario
What gives? It makes more sense for me to buy a newer one as the mileage is much better or an older one as the emphysema wagon junk isn't there.
Does anyone know what the smog rules were in those days?
I'm not positive, but I think they started in '77 on those trucks. A '78 Blazer I used to own had all the stuff... Once you tear one piece off, it's better to tear all that stuff out. My favorite mods for getting rid of all the smog stuff is: Upper half overhaul: new malifold(smogless), new carb, new distrbutor. Tear out Air pump Install headers with true dual exhaust behind them.
I'm not positive, but I think they started in '77 on those trucks. A '78 Blazer I used to own had all the stuff... Once you tear one piece off, it's better to tear all that stuff out.
My favorite mods for getting rid of all the smog stuff is:
Upper half overhaul: new malifold(smogless),
new carb, new distrbutor. Tear out Air pump Install headers with true dual exhaust behind them. Then she breathes much easier....
Actually started in 75 for any car/truck with a GVM less then 6200 lbs. MYy 75 Blazer(FS) had a GVW od 6300 and was exempt. No CAT ot A/P. But I still don't think all that emission stuff hurt milage. I went from stock 31" tires and 3.73 rear, with FullTime 4WD to headers and PartTime 4WD, 33" tires and through 196K miles I always got 13-15 MPG. Now I own 89' F/S Jimmy with 33" tires, 3.73 rear and STILL get
13-15 MPG and I now have 362K on this truck. The 89' is F/I not carb and has all the emission stuff on it. So you tell me where you think you're going to get an improvement. I hope you do but with all that weight and such I think 500K+ miles and I never saw better then 13-15, or perhaps 16-17 on long hauls of just interstate between NY and GA. Good luck.
Thanks for the honest reply. I just thought that the 3/4-tons, by virtue of their gvwt were exempt until further into the 80's is all.
Anyway, I did a handshake deal on the truck and will try my luck with it. It is a 1980 Chevy K20, 350 auto, NP205, 14 bolt/10bolt, regular cab, longbox that comes with a snow plow that is in real good shape. The guy is retired and is the original owner. All he wanted was enough to buy a new snowblower and put some green in his jeans.
Now there are hi-flow cats and 50 state exhaust systems including header so that is not too much of a problem. I don't know if the EGR valve does much in the way of horsepower/mileage hinderance but I will keep all the smog stuff. The air pump is not much of a problem (Oh no, the belt must have come off! How on earth did that happen?) LOL. There are real good air cleaners these days so that shouldn't be a problem.
Being as I live in the snow belt of the Great White North (North Western Ontario) I like to keep things drivable for slippery winter condidtions. This means fast to warm up (pre-heater from the manifold stove intact), no radical cams so I don't have to arc the engine just to get going, etc. so I can get away with a set of Thorley Tri-Y headers, a hi-flow 3" cat and a single 3" system with quite muffler all the way to the back. I find the quiet muffler saves me gas as I tend to drive more sedately when I can't hear the music from the pipes.
I checked our Department of Transprotation website and found out some interesting stuff.
- Ontario really has no local regulations as far as vehicle smog rules.
- The rules consist of this. If the vehicle came with a certain piece of smog equipment (like a cat) then it is illegal to remove it or to render it inoperative.
Where there are sniff-tests the pre-test inspection is a visual of the system to verify that it exists and is operative.
- Vehicles 3 years of age and under are exempt from the test. These vehicles are under warantee and are considered to be among the best maintained of any that are on the road.
- Vehicle older than 20 years of age are also exempt. They represent only less than 3% of the vehicles that are still on the road and so are considered to be such a small contributor to smog that it is not worth the while of the authorities to test them.
Of course it should go without saying that any pollution wagon that lays down a smog screen of blue exhaust will be pulled from the road regardless of the exemption status.
It will not be difficult to keep this stuff. I was just surprised is all.
My favorite flavor of old trucks is the '73-'87 Chevy and the '73-'79 Ford (Ford=sacrilege... I know, I know). Anything pre-1975 is nice because the cats are not required. And 3/4 tons up to I BELIEVE 1978 or 79 have no cat either.
Of course, I take all the smog stuff off all my trucks. Remove air pump, replace intake and carb with non-EGR units (remove all the damn vaccum lines and charcoal canister as well), remove exhaust and install headers and true duals with either glasspaks or turbo mufflers. Out in the boonies of rural IL, there are no smog checks. There are also tons of exhaust places that will do your exhaust without cats still. It's nice ;-)
I know a guy who owns a 1983 C-20 (HD 3/4 ton 2WD) and it came factory with no cat. Must be the HD part gives it enough GVW to be exampt. I don't know the specifics of those laws (anyone have a site or info they could post?).
Good luck with your old Chevy. You can't buy a REAL truck like that anymore.
-- Tony Kimmell Towanda, IL
To email me, put a "2" after my last name in my email address
You'd be really hard pressed to find an old chevy that comes stock with a 340HP and can tow 16,000lbs. that definately fits under my description of a "real truck".
You are quite probably right and about 15 is what I expect. My wife's '86 Chevy 1/2-ton gets 21 with 2wd, 305, carb, 308 gearing and p235/15's so I think 15 would be about right for a heavy 4wd. Anyway, I guy can dream can't he?????
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