I just went through the CA smog test here and barely passed with a new catalytic converter (the old one with 250,000 miles did not pass). The new catalytic converter droped the emissions significantly but HC was still high close to upper limit. The CES injection has been working correctly.

Anyway my question to Duke and others regarding having a heated up catalytic converter before the test is this:
I am aware of a special heat retaining tape that is used in race engines to retain temperature inside the exhaust headers. It is called Thermo-Tec. What if one were to wrap the piping up to the inlet of the converter with this tape? Would that be allowed by law? Cause that would definetely help retain much more heat in the CAT input.

I know for a fact it works cause when I had installed headers on my 89 Honda CRX SI it failed the smog test despite the CARB-approved headers. I wrapped them with this tape and the emissions dropped tremendously and it passed easily. The tech did not say anything about them but I do not know if it is legal to do so. Anyone knows?