Legal engine swaps?

[DemonTSi at aol.com]

In a message dated 97-10-08 00:20:42 EDT, DStreich at compuserve.com writes:

<< In pre-66 cars you can do whatever the hell you want <looking at a 1955
 Pontiac Star Chief and 30 years in the old ladys jail> but after that you
 have to use a newer version of the origional engine that came out of a
 vehical in the same or lower weight class.  I am unclear as to using an
 engine that was a newer car of your bodystyle but wasent offered in your
 model year.  It is illeagal to put a super clean(burning) engine in a
 vehical that had a dirty engine in it unless you get lotsa pain in the butt
 tests, and they say the legislature is good...Eliminate all
 GreenPeopleFreaks!!!  I am for clean air and clean cars, but so few are 25
 years and older that the 20 or 25 years and beyond aged cars should be
 exemt and any car that had a carbureator should be able to be switched to
 fuel injection and exemted from smog because the over lean and rich engines
 that do most poluting are usually carbureated, and fuel injection is much
 more reliable in that department,... >>

I was wondering if anyone would even have to worry about all this
bureaucratic nonsense...I mean, if I had a pre-70 something or other
car...and swapped in a fuel injected post-80 engine and it passed smog even
without all the necessary emissions equipment, does anything else really
matter? I noticed that most smog shops don't really know or care what they
see under the hood as long as it's not flashy. So if you do a stock looking
install and the car passes smog, that should be enough right? 

Van