Alrighty guys... just got my 08 tested for the first time today, and got some very surprising results. I passed!
Full Stage 2 tune with MBC. That being said, I put EVERYTHING back in place (MBC was hidden, but the stock BCS was plugged in and mounted, the hose ends were hidden). Swapped the stock cats back on too.
The great thing about this... I have a Protune, and they disabled the BCS CEL, and the Cat efficiency CEL (P0420), and any others relating to the BCS or Converter efficiency. Let the car warm up with the stock cats a little bit. Drove over gently, and passed with flying colors.
So what can we deduct from this? The new SMOG testing is a giant scam, and without a sniffer test, had I passed the visual, I could have been running gutted cats or catless and still passed! Assuming the tech ignored the smell...
Anyway, just wanted to report my success story and maybe ease the worry for someone else who's about to get smogged. As long as all your readiness codes are set, and you pass the visual (which is very tech dependent) you should be golden.
