It's my first F430 smog test. How should I prepare the car
Add some Techron and drive a little ... warm it up. Should be no problem ... my '88 328 passed two weeks ago with great numbers. Injected cars are easy if you've kept in tune.
I don't think they put the "sniffer" on cars made after model year 1999. They only do a visual inspection and check the OBDII computer. I've smog'ged 2 cars (a '00 and a '11) in the past month and neither one got an exhaust sniffed.
I think the 430 is an OBD-III car, so they just plug their computer into the car's computer to ask if it's okay. That's how States "smogged" my EVOs. But I can't say, for sure, for CA, as my Alfa wouldn't be legal there, so I never lived there. I think they also do a visual to make sure it has the parts they decree it should have, such as the cats. If an OBD car "fails", your shop can clear the OBD faults, then try again.
There is no need to "prepare" the car. There is no dyno or exhaust gas test for the car. They just connect their computer to the OBDII connector under the dash. As long as you have no fault codes stored and all of your monitors have been set, then you are good to go.
Its the same here in Ontario, Canada. As Brian and others said, no dyno or exhaust tests. But to answer your question on "how to prepare your car" you could connect a generic OBD2 scanner that shows Monitor Ready Status and do a pre-check before taking it in. However, if you haven't cleared any Mil codes or disconnected your battery recently you should be good to go. Most daily drivers reset their monitors in 1 or 2 weeks of driving but because most F cars are only driven on dry weekends that interval is longer That's why if you live in these areas it makes sense that when you purchase a scanner get one that has this feature. My experiences of course.
Good advice, Fred. My 360 had so much trouble showing "ready" status on all of the values (mainly due to low miles, and battery resets). Such a PITA to get it sorted. If the OP doesn't have a scanner that will tell you the status on those values, just ask the smog shop to do you the courtesy of checking for you prior to the inspection. No reason to get a "fail" for something so stupid.
The 430 doesn't have the difficulty of setting the monitors/drive cycle issues that the 360 (especially the 1999 model year) does. If the OP doesn't do the stupid move of disconnecting the battery and drives the car regularly, all of the monitors are probably fine. But like you said, it only takes a minute with a generic OBDII scanner to see if the car will pass.