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California Engine Swaps; It CAN be done?!
Topic Started: May 14 2015, 03:34 PM (2,210 Views)
Ephemeral Glade
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Kind of like the USDA. Checking a chicken for maggots or puss, is a lot less time consuming and cheaper than having zillion samples sent to a lab to be tested for Salmonella.

Hope you got a Sawzall and plenty of blades. I had a friend in the Air Force who put a 350 into a Vega( apparently a real easy swap), but besides being able to do a nasty burnout, the car really wasn't that fast. It also handled like a battleship.
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Freeman
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The Family Man

Ephemeral Glade
May 15 2015, 12:12 PM
The Honda guys are buying these JDM motors and getting them to pass smog by hooking up all the US emissions stuff, including the ecu. You could buy a federal engine and make it work if it had the right ecu, CA smog stuff, and it could pass the CA emissions for the year of the engine.
:thumb Yup. That's how they do it. Stupid if you ask me. I'm not a fan of smog inspection. If I was subject to that, I'd only purchase vehicles pre-smog; if I had the intent to modify them.
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evmetro


Ephemeral Glade
May 15 2015, 12:57 PM

Hope you got a Sawzall and plenty of blades. I had a friend in the Air Force who put a 350 into a Vega( apparently a real easy swap), but besides being able to do a nasty burnout, the car really wasn't that fast. It also handled like a battleship.

I run a Powermax 85 plasma cutter.

I agree, a heavy powerplant like that doesn't make for great handling. The laughing and screaming that comes from the nasty burnouts will keep you young forever though. Tire smoke is magical to me, the way it makes me laugh, the way it makes my adrenaline rush. I went to the drags a couple weeks ago, and sampled breaths of tire smoke, alcohol burners, and nitro methane burners, and the tire smoke seems to be the most pleasant for me. I could definitely tell that the nitro was the most potent, but the burning rubber is more classic.
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aaronvincent
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Mr Mojo Risin'

You should take a vacation to the Springfield "tire fire" then :lol
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Ephemeral Glade
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Way to make me look super ghetto, evmetro! No, you use the claw end of a carpentry hammer, until you've connected all the puntures. You can make a relatively smooth cut.
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Ephemeral Glade
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TurboEF
May 15 2015, 01:21 PM
Ephemeral Glade
May 15 2015, 12:12 PM
The Honda guys are buying these JDM motors and getting them to pass smog by hooking up all the US emissions stuff, including the ecu. You could buy a federal engine and make it work if it had the right ecu, CA smog stuff, and it could pass the CA emissions for the year of the engine.
:thumb Yup. That's how they do it. Stupid if you ask me. I'm not a fan of smog inspection. If I was subject to that, I'd only purchase vehicles pre-smog; if I had the intent to modify them.
I understand that perspective. It comes from not growing up in a time and place where smog was causing a health epidemic. I was stationed in Oklahoma, and there was this glorious giant sky, there. Breathtaking, really. Unless you moved 100 million people there, they could never have the problems we had in LA. I get it.
I am grateful for the smog regulations. At 48 years old, I am not trying to drive a 20 mpg car, no matter how fast it is. That's just me, though. Like I said there are places pristine and beautiful where people couldn't imagine how bad it really was.
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Ephemeral Glade
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I gave my ex my 2000 Honda Civic, it has about 200,000 miles now. It has great compression, and always passes smog with flying colors. With the modern cars, if you don't need to modify them, smogging is an easy and consistant process. It is rarely an issue.
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Metromightymouse
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Powdercoat Wizard

TurboEF
May 15 2015, 05:47 AM
Your car or newer and requires all the emissions and correct ECU, etc, from the year of motor you swap in. This is really big in the 'Honda scene'. If you wanted to drop a G13BB in your '91, you would need the ECU from the same model year and all the emissions wiring equipment that goes along with it.

Obviously cars that predate emissions are exempt.

Most people just register the car in another state with a friend, relative, or parent's address. While pushing the envelope of legality, it works.
There is a cost factor there since CA charges a premium to register an out of state car. You would have to maintain the out of state plates to avoid the cost.
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robertino
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Well here's the skiny on the engine swap in CA. If your car is a 74 or older you can do what ever you want , EFI no EFI CAT no CAT ...it's a free for all , that's why all the 74 and older car s in CA are so ridiculously over priced.
If You want to make a pocket rocket out of your Metro there really isn't much options if you want a drop in other than that 4 cyl Suzuki little power house but if you have a 94 and older and that's all . You could put a G13B in a 95+ but you are risking getting it flagged if you are ever called to a State smog shop and then say good bye to that car !
You most interesting option is to get the G13B from a Japanese car that was built for the Swift market and I believe that they are still shoving them in those cars, so ideally you buy the front part of a wrecked Japanese Swift or Cultus ( say 2005) and take everything you need out of that , because it will have the engine , the wiring and computer. Here is where it gets a little GREY though ! it may still be illegal because that engine was not for this market and I'm not sure how it will react when you try and put a CA exhaust on it but still use the Japanese ECM ( you see where I'm going with this)
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Deleted User
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Get Out Of California! (If You Can Afford To Do So, By The Way, I CANT!) There Are 49 Other Far Superior States To Pick And Choose From. You Don't Have To Live Like That And Also Put Up With The CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROLS Bullshit, Or LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENTS Bullshit. Not To Mention Them HELICOPTERS!!

Life Is Too Short To Live In A Communist State.

If I Wasn't This POOR, You Think I'd Still Be Here? NOPE!
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Ephemeral Glade
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Definitely doesn't sound like the place for you.
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Woodie
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Being poor does not really justify staying in California. It's far more likely that California is one of the reasons you're poor.
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Freeman
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The Family Man

robertino
May 16 2015, 01:15 AM
Here is where it gets a little GREY though ! it may still be illegal because that engine was not for this market and I'm not sure how it will react when you try and put a CA exhaust on it but still use the Japanese ECM ( you see where I'm going with this)
It will fail. The JDM motor swaps do not comply with CA emission laws. The ECU is often times more tuned and the motors sport higher compression and such, a lot of the time.

My Honda has a JDM motor swap, B16A. The US equivalent is a B16A3 or B16A2 out of a '99 SI Civic or a Del Sol VTEC (not Si model). Both of those engines are 'less potent' to some degree and the ECU tuning on the PR3 is superior to the P30. These are slight changes, but it is about 10 HP out of basically the same motor. However, importing a motor from Japan is actually MUCH cheaper than finding a legal US swap for CA due to demand on these things. A P30 ECU is incredibly expensive; but more importantly, rare.

EDIT:

Woody is right. If you are young, apply to a good out of state university. Take loans, move on campus, go to school. Just do it. Trust me. Please.
Edited by Freeman, May 22 2015, 05:45 AM.
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Ephemeral Glade
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Wow. There are things I don't like about CA, but it is nothing like the kind of hate you guys are expressing. I guess I felt the same way about Oklahoma when I was stationed there. I have a good life here, and am generally happy with this choice.
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robertino
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There's nothing wrong with California...There might be something wrong with ENCINO , but not with California.
Yea the smog certification is a bunch of bull but if you lived here in the early 80's you'd shut your mouth real quick, because the smog was so bad ! I have a friend that his roommate move out of the state because one day he woke up , opened the door and found out that there was a mountain only a few miles back from the building they were living in.
Now you might ask well how does that make sense ? Well.. the night before there was this really strong storm and it blew all the smog out, and it revealed the mountain that was about 10-15 miles back ! Yea it was bad before all the smog laws went into effect.
Now don't get me wrong ! its still bad when it comes to smog but in the 80's it was BAD . Look up the 84 Olympics but look at this video....that's not a light morning fog folks!

or listen to what ED Bagley says at 1:29
Edited by robertino, May 25 2015, 11:15 PM.
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