Legal engine swaps?

Tue Oct 7 16:52:15 GMT 1997

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     I was told by a smog referee here in CA that engine modifications are 
     treated differently from engine swaps per se. If you claim that the 
     engine is an improved version of the original,  and the HC and CO 
     tests verify that your car emits less of these pollutants than the 
     maximum allowed for the model, you can obtain a CA smog certification. 
     It's mostly a matter of convincing the state that you are earnestly 
     trying to improve the emissions of your older vehicle.  This doesn't 
     work so well with newer cars (say, 1980-up) because there is less room 
     for improvement.

     Certification is not a one-day process.  Don't expect to rumble into 
     the smog station with your "improved" hot rod early '70's belchfire-8, 
     complete with lumpy cam and performance injection system, and be 
     looked upon favorably by the smog police.  The appearance of the car 
     (and yourself) are as important as how cleanly it runs.  If you come 
     across as an amateur grease monkey trying to skirt the emissions laws 
     (as most of the peple who see the smog ref are doing), forget it.

     Contact a smog referee early in the project; write a letter explaining 
     how you plan to improve the emissions of your smoggy old vehicle, 
     including engine rebuild, addition of catalytic converters, 
     replacement of carburetor with EFI, etc, and request guidance in 
     getting the vehicle certified. If you don't like their attitude, 
     contact someone higher up the chain or find another referee. Try to 
     develop a working relationship with a particular referee in your area, 
     showing him/her that you are not trying to pull one over on them. (Of 
     course, this will not work if you are trying to certify a smoggy race 
     motor for the street) Support your claim of improved emissions by 
     having your project tested by a smog check station before and after 
     modification, and compare the results to other makes and model years.  
     Remember, the vast majority of the cars looked at by a smog referee 
     are there because they failed the emissions tests, and the owner has 
     requested a waiver due to prohibitive cost of fixing the emissions 
     systems.  Plenty of people obtain these waivers; the primary 
     requirement is that all the original parts must be there, which is why 
     smog ref's are sticklers about "the book".

     Contrary to popular belief it is possible to register cars in CA that 
     do not have all of the required CA equipment; this is particularly 
     true if you are bringing an older vehicle in from another state that 
     had less stringent requirements for the model year.  A friend of mine 
     brought an '86 Dodge van conversion in from another state; it had no 
     catalytic converter, etc., because it was not considered a passenger 
     car by the Feds and the other 49 states, and it was missing the 
     "certified for California" sticker on the aircleaner.  (Despite this 
     it passed the CA HC and CO tests with flying colors, but that was 
     irrelevant to the DMV)  In such cases the owner is required to pay a 
     "smog impact fee"- in this case about $600- in order to register the 
     car, but is _not_ required to modify the vehicle to meet CA codes.

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: RE: Legal engine swaps?
Author:  diy_efi at coulomb.eng.ohio-state.edu at Internet
Date:    10/7/97 7:04 AM

Pre SB42 which is sitting on Guv Petes Desk rules are simple

65 and later only

If the engine is older than the body year, it must have all the smog equipment 
and meet the smog standards of the body year for that engine. If it was not 
available that year, you may as well forget it.

If the engine is newer than the body year, it must have ALL the smog equipment 
and meet the smog standards of the engine year. This includes cats, evaporative 
canisters, transmission etc.

Unless the swapped in engine is bone stock and in primo emissions condition, 
taking it to a referee is certain to result in all of your work ending up at 
Ace Auto Wrecking.  Their basic goal is to make certain that each and every 
component is in their book and is smog legal.  Compromise, reasonableness, 
understanding , willing to work with the public etc. are not in their 
vocabulary.  Remember - they are one of the enforcement arms of the Smog Nazis!

If the first ingredient ain't Habanero, then the rest don't matter. 
Other Obsessions: Ferro-Equinary , 1972 "Killer Whale" Mustang
Currently Interred in the Peoples Democratic Republic of California - Stalag 
Montclair
Puck da guns - ban Politicians!!!!!
Robert Harris <bob at bobthecomputerguy.com>

-----Original Message-----
From:   DemonTSi at aol.com [SMTP:DemonTSi at aol.com] 
Sent:   Tuesday, October 07, 1997 1:56 AM
To:     diy_efi at coulomb.eng.ohio-state.edu 
Subject:        Legal engine swaps?

Does anyone know what the law says (esp in CA) about swapping a newer engine 
(post-80) into an older car (pre-70)??
Thanks in advance for the help...

Van

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From: Robert Harris <bob at bobthecomputerguy.com>
To: "'diy_efi at coulomb.eng.ohio-state.edu'"
	 <diy_efi at coulomb.eng.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: RE: Legal engine swaps?
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 07:04:43 -0700
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