Quote:
Originally Posted by Idle
One way to tell if a car is Fed or Cal is to look at the EPA plates or stickers on the radiator mounting frame. Just lift the hood and look down at the part of the body work that has the VIN plate on it and the option code plate.
Hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong.... The Fed version of this car had a black place with white numbers. It was the same place almost all Mercedes used.
The Cal version had a green plate with white numbers. It was only affixed to cars in the 'Western Zone' which could extend all the way east to El Paso.
The smog pump can be removed and the exhaust headers can be replaced and if you live somewhere where you can get away with it this might be the thing to do if you have a Cal version. The state I live in, Oklahoma, allows this on older cars and it is a common swap.
And if the original carbs are worn out you can pick up used ones on Ebay for about two or three hundred for a pair. You can also replace with with a Weber conversion kit with is popular but not cheap.
But these are small things when you finally start driving it. There is a reason people put up with these odd quirks.
Because to drive this car it's worth it.
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I'm lucky to live in Ohio where the state doesn't check your emissions (unless you live in Cleveland) so I'd definitely look into whatever I could do to release some of the power that emissions left on the table. I did drive the car and unfortunately it had a miss, so I didn't get to experience that turbine-like straight-6 smoothness. I'm trying to get the seller to spring for a tune-up, which I hope does the trick. That said, it does kill my buzz somewhat that the car was put on the market in dire need of a tune up.