Do the smog shops in Cali actually check components under the hood. I removed most stuff. All is left is a STR fuel Rail and STR adjustable cam gears, do u think I will pass?

 

They're getting stricter. Nowadays, if it doesn't look stock, they'll ask for a CARB EO. The cam gears they probably won't notice, but the fuel rail is pretty prominent. It's a tough call. I would just go around to different smog shops and see if one will smog you. When I smoged two years ago with my (non-CARB approved) turbo setup, I went to 3 smog shops. One was a friend of a friend and a supposed "hook up", but the guy's dad came out and saw what was under the hood and wussed out of smogging me, even though the pre-test showed my emissions were ultra-low. He told me to go to a 76 station down th road where he supposedly knew the owner. That guy took one look and said I had to go to the BAR ref. I cut out of there pretty quickly, and found this semi-ghetto smog shop that was sandwiched between a body shop and a musclecar shop. The guy there didn't even care that I didn't have any kind of proper filter, or that my CEL happened to be blaring. Anyways, I guess I lucked out and he smogged me and I passed. I was going to "tip" him, but he just looked at me confused and handed it back to me.