Engine Certification

[Frederic Breitwieser]

>I have been playing around with the idea of building a custom car
>from the ground up including the chassis.  Has anybody looked into
>what hurdles you need to jump to have a street legal car? How hard
>to get EPA certification for an engine not currently used by a
>production car?  I don't think it would be too hard to pass emissions
>tests, but that isn't enough to get title and registration.

Oh Dan, Oh Dan, you have entered a new realm.  First, a quick plug - you
might want to join the "Homebrew Automotive" Mailing List :)  Okay, now
onto the meat.

Each state has different rules, however NY, NJ, and Connecticut go by the
engine year as the guideline for what level of emmissions are acceptable
when they stick that thing into your tailpipe.

The mid-engine vehicle I'm building will be using a 3.8L engine (Buick)
from a 1986 LeSabre (slowly adding GN parts), so in CT where I am, I must
comply with 1986 emission regulations.  Using the factory ECM and pollution
crudd (er, systems) will enable me to achieve that.

Some states, go by chassis manufacturing date.  If you weld together your
chassis, finishing it in 1998 (the first time you register the vehicle)
then you must comply with 1998 regulations.  Vermont I believe is such a
state.  That almost forces you to purchase a 1997-1998 engine for your
vehicle, or obtain some kind of special registration.  Some states have
"prototype" registrations (like NY) where emissions aren't applicable, but
of course, this is not cheap either.

The best approach is to contact your local DMV, and get a list of what's
required for registering a special applications vehicle, i.e. a kit-car,
and build to the same criteria.

There are many other issues to consider other than emissions... ride
height, bumper height, 5 mph bumpers (or not), air bags, seat belt types
(racing harnesses!!!), number of tail lights, brightness of reverse lights,
how many headlights and the appropriate wattage, tire width, nitrous
capability (or rules against it), and the list goes on almost endlessly.

I downloaded the Federal Specs for Automobile requirements, in HTML format,
which I had on my website for some time, but somehow AOL when I was there
lost the file.  I have it on my PC in the garage, if you want to load it
into your browser, I can email it to you.  Its approximately 300K or so if
I remember.  I shaved out a zillion color codes trying to make it smaller.
The fed guidelines are just a start... since the states do the inspections
you need to clarify exactly what is necessary.

Aside from the required equipment, its also important (okay, very
important) to make the chassis/cage/body as strong as possible.  This is
common sense, but most cars on the road are of the safer variety since they
are supposed to be crash tested.  I did a lot of research on this, and
found I *could* register my "car manufacturing business" as such, and build
a prototype, however at "some point" the Federal government could step in
and say "hi, send us four vehicles to crash test".  I haven't legally
figured out all of the issues with this approach, and registering as an
automobile manufacturer from what I can tell will cost approximately $4k to
accomplish.  That was out of my price range for a "one-off"

Another option, is to make your body style very similar to an existing
vehicle, and for registration purposes, contact a title company in
Rochester NY and create a legal title for your "1986 Porsche 962".  THis is
the method that some of the kit-car companies do.

My apologies to the list for the long post.  I got a tad carried away.

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Frederic Breitwieser
Homebrew Automotive Mailing List
Bridgeport, CT 06606
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/4605/index.html
1989 AG Hummer 4-Door
1993 Supercharged Lincoln Continental
2000 Mid-Engine Sports Car <smile>





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