Date:         Tue, 26 Jan 1999 22:16:46 -0800
Reply-To:     Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Re: Legal swaps, California rules, long
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hello, everyone. I had hoped to stay away from a discussion of this
subject until I had actually been through it, but here is what I believe
to be the case. I have researched the rules for swaps in California and
they can be done legally. The State actually has written guidelines for
the conversions. The Eurospec conversion is done under these same rules.
They are a special case because they are using a new engine and
equipment, not one that came out of a California Air Resources Board
approved vehicle. Therefore they needed a special status because the
engine numbers that they use would not appear in the State computerized
system as having been installed in an approved model. In both cases,
after the conversion is done, the vehicle must be taken to a Smog
Referee Station where it is inspected and the tail pipe emissions
checked. If found compliant, a sticker is permanently attached to the
vehicle identifying it as having a compliant engine swap and all future
Smog Checks are done in the normal way by the normal places. In order to
be compliant, the engine that is put in must come from the same or newer
model year of the same class vehicle. The emission requirements differ
from class to class, so you must stay within a class. For example you
may not put an engine from a heavy truck into a passenger vehicle. All
emissions equipment that came with it must be installed with the engine.
All sensors and warning lights must be used, along with the correct ECU
etc. for the year model of the engine being installed. These are the
rules as I understand them and I will post my experiences after I go
through the process. I intend to have a fully legal engine configuration
and I will be satisfied with nothing less. Any one doing the swap in
another state should investigate the rules there. California generally
has the most restrictive smog rules but I would be interested to find
out otherwise.

Mark Drillock, guinea pig
87 Syncro Camper, Quantum 5 Cylinder 2.2
t-minus 1 week or so and counting

Air Ollikainen wrote:

> >Detlev owns his own shop....im sure he can pass any car he wants :<)
> >
>
>         He might as well try jumping over the moon...
>
>         Apparently you don't understand the emmission testing process here
>         in California. It's all computerised and based on the CARB's
>         database of vehicle models and engine combinations. The results of the
>         tests are automatically sent by the testing equipment to the DMV.
>         Having CARB's certification of a transplant means that it is in the
>         database...
>
>         Finagling the process has a very hefty penalty as well as loss of
>         certification as a testing facility.
>
>       OLTECO                    Ari Ollikainen
>       P.O. BOX 3688             Networking Technology and Architecture
>       Stanford, CA              Ari@OLTECO.com
>       94309-3688                415.517.3519