Got Hood Open!!!!!
 

I finally got my hood repaired, man what a bi*ch. In the latch mechanism there is a little piece of metal that curls around but does not make a complete circle, this way you can slip the cable in, and at the end of the cable is a round piece of metal (looks like fishing weight). That catches the metal and allows the cable to pull the hood spring open. Well it's a pretty flimsy piece of metal (Curly Part), so watch it guys and gals, I now open and close my hood like I was diparin a baby's bottom. As for my emmisions, changed O2 sensor, looked at daspot and checked VT. Was able to blow air threw black side, but could not blow through other side (none). Does this need to be replaced and does it play much of a part in emmissions control? Also was quoted a price of $83 for a magnaflow cat and $60 for install. Does that sound right? Oh, by the way, on the way to pick up my new latch I was on a no-shoulder highway when the bungi cord flys off, don'tcha know, only me, I had to drive about a 1/4 mile looking through a 2 inch slit.

James in NJ
Can't get worse, only better (I hope)

hahahaha im sorry man but that is funny, it sucks that all this keeps happening to you though. dont worry last night my mom sent me to get a newspaper and the powersteering went out. turns out hose was bad. so you're not the only one

Dashpot plays NO role in smog test. They won't test/check it. They look around for open vacuum ports and hose that don't go anywhere. They look at connectors and broken things.
They probably won't even check the timing, they will check the idle speed. If its too high, they'll fail you for the timing cause they could not check it.
Sounds like good deal on the cat.

Egr is something they will look out (hoses and connected or not.).
Test #s tells if all the systems work.