KUDOS TO SAN FRANCISCO MOTORSPORTS

San Francisco Motorsports is the best, Bought my car from them and has been cared for by John for the last 5 years. Gavin

 

Also a GREAT supporter of the FOG Group and FOG rally events! Cheers to the whole team at SF Motorsports!!

 

I will pile on here, SF motorsports did a major on my 308 and prepped it for sale overseas.

John has also looked after my Granturismo F1. What I have always appreciated about John
is that, as a guy that likes to work on his own cars, he always takes the time to patiently explain what he is doing and answer all my questions.

A few weeks ago I was struggling with balancing the banks and mixture on my Diablo, and literally after spending countless hours, I gave up and asked if he could help. I took my car, my workshop manual, my V12 console and outlined what I had tried. In a few hours he had the problem solved. Doug even trailered the car back to my house on a rainy Sunday night.
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Timely testamony for me; my 308 QV failed SMOG and I booked a New Year's appointment at SF Motorsport just a couple of days ago. Great to read the kudos. Yeah, Doug already spent time with me on the phone talking about what he is going to do.

 

Thanks for sharing your experiences and recommendation. It's always great to learn of local shops that can provide expert care and services for these cars!

 

Curious if your QV has an air-pump, or one of the later non-air-pump cars, and what gets fixed to cure smog woes? The reason is CA so tight on permissible compared to Europe and other states in the US which take measurements that everything literally must be perfect. A cat loses a little efficiency, 9th injector leaks just a little, and weakness in ignition etc. Very impressed by a tech who can go straight to the prob.

 

I bring my car in to SF Motorsport tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.

My 1983 QV has an air pump. It has always been a California car (I am the second owner).

I failed the SMOG test on CO and CO2, which I believe suggests a too-rich mixture. I do all the repairs on my car myself, but I'd rather not guess at what is wrong and get a bunch of fails on SMOG tests. It's nice to put the car in the hands of experts in this case.

I also have a rattle at 3,000 rpm, which sounds like one of my two cats might be coughing up a hairball. Interestingly, I phoned the CARB Referee Program to ask about what / if cats are available for my car. They said that any "PC1" (Passenger Car Category 1) cat is acceptable. This is noted in their document "ET Blast # 34105" regarding pre-OBDII vehicles. I was surprised that their explanation was simple and straightforward.

 

Thank you!
Some info regarding cats. They are not all created equal. The coatings are precious metal, and like every product, if it can be made cheaper, and still work yada-yada . OBD II cats have more (or are supposed to) catalizing material. But again, these are not all created equal. Supposedly OEM are the best. So the challenge becomes; what PC-1 cats are available / that fit / are good quality?? I was looking at HJS as they do have the 3-way chemistry HC/CO/NOx, and can (depending on cat model) satisfy EURO 5 requirements which is roughly equivalent (I believe) to OBD II. This should clean up the exhaust sufficiently. At least HJS lists their cats according to their performance. I've experimented with $69 cats and it was a bad learning experience. The HJS are made in Germany, and are expensive. About 6-900 for the HD EURO 5. I don't know if these are considered "PC-1". Fun fun fun

Did you fail by a little, or way off? Best of luck!

 

I failed by "a little bit".

I am leaving cat selection to them (I believe John has ordered DEC brand cats). They could not just adjust mixture to make it pass.

Are you in Europe or the USA?