Did Dealers remove SMOG?

[Mr70]

I know the 427 cid COPO cars were sold new with the SMOG equipment intact.
But did Don Yenko remove the SMOG equipment from his 427 cid Camaros/Novas/Chevelles before he sold them with his personal touch added?

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I can only speak for the Yenko Novas, and to our knowledge there were no Yenko Novas that left Yenko (or any other participating dealers) without the smog equipment. All original Yenko Nova owners that I have spoken with, recall removing the smog equipment themselves.

It was more common for Yenko Chev. to not install something they were supposed to on the Novas, as opposed to removing something.
M

[Mr Yenko]

I don't know if this will help. But my brothers 70 LS-6 Chevelle was sold out of Scuncio Chevrolet.And the orig. owner told us that he ordered the Chevelle with fenderwell headers. When he picked up the car all the smog and exhaust manifolds were in the trunk.
Brian

[9566 BA]

Did all COPO chevelles in 69 come with smog pumps whether they were automatic or 4 speed? What if the car was being sent to Canada? Did Canadaian cars have to follow US emissions standards? Jeff

[Mr70]

9566 BA
Yes,all 69 COPO 427 cars did get smog from the factory regardless of trans.type.I do believe that Canada required it too.Although COPO Pete may enlighten us...

[Chevy454]

Where is Tedford...he could probably shed some light on this also.

[Mr70]

But my question is when restoring a Yenko prepared 427 1969 Super car today,do you include the Smog equipment on the engine?
Do we have survivor Yenko's out there who still have it on?

[Keith Tedford]

All three of the COPO Chevelles sold through Beare Motors had the smog pump. Nurse Chev-Olds in Whitby sold a COPO Camaro and it had the smog pump as well. I believe all solid lifter Chevies, small and big block, had the air pump in '69. I don't think it was legal for the dealer to remove the system. Of course, we pulled everything and put headers on the first chance we had. It would be interesting to see how much the A.I.R system actually hurt performance. The switch to headers gave a definite seat of the pants improvement. I think our smog laws pretty well followed in the foot steps of the American laws.
The Yenko Camaro that was tested for the July 1969 Super Stock and Drag Illustrated magazine had no AIR system but used a set of Doug Thorley headers. It ran 11.944 at 114mph on slicks. I guess that would be one car that came from the dealer less the AIR system.

[Edited by Keith Tedford (09-21-2001 at 04:15 PM).]

[bkhpah]

I have interviewed 4 original owners a 67, 68, and two 69's. All cars sold at Yenko and all had headers on at the time of purchase. This is most likley NOT the case on cars that were shipped via SPAN to other dealerships in the network. I am also fairly certain that not every car sold at Yenko would have had headers. The gentleman that owns the 67 had the headers removed by Yenko for the first PA inspection {at that time twice a year} when the car would not pass with headers. Yenko offered headers, you can bet some were sold with them. The cars that were sold as competition cars were. The race engine Yenko installed in my car were part of the deal...BKH

[Chevy454]

In one of our Camaro reference books (I can't remember if it was Hooper's or McNeish's) it states that all '69 cars came with smog, but that it had been rumored that possibly the low HP 396 Chevelles may have not had the smog...or something to that effect. I know our Camaro has the untapped manifolds, which I see occasionally, which makes me wonder if there was possibly more than 1 car that came without the smog. But, who knows?!

This is a very interesting topic. Did anyone have a chance to speak much with the gentleman that was the original owner of 2 Yenko Camaros? Maybe we need to pick his brain!!!!!