I am a newbie please dont flame me too hard. If u have read any of my posts b4 this you would know that i want to keep my car street legal. I was wondering if an engine swap in california from a ls to a gsr motor is legal and if not why? Is there any way to make it legal? Can someone clarify this for me please?

 

Jus keep the Ls and Boost it

 

im not gunna get a swap cuz my engine only has 40k on it i was just wondering what and why its illegal. I want to jrsc or boost but i want it to stay street legal.

 

anyone???

 

good idea....thats two for boost

 

I believe the rule is that the engine has to come from a newer car. Since your's is a '99, you'll have to use a newer '99 or anything >2000. And I'm sure theres some paperwork with the DMV.

 

Thats exactly the way i kno it. U need a motor from a year the same or newer than urs and the proper paperwork as well. Check out http://www.dmv.ca.gov to see if they have any info online.

 

Also the engine must be USDM to be legal. Yes it sucks, but its true. There is always a chance they will let it get past the BAR with a JDM motor, but not likely. And as the others have stated, you will need a 99+GSR USDM for it to be legit on the road. This is only to get BAR certified. You can always do the swap like everyone else does, and just don't tell the smog people. In my book, if it passes smog, its legal. I could care less if its BAR approved.

 

here's an idea......instead of asking bunch of people here, maybe you'd be inclined to call a smog ref or such and ask THEM.......since they know exactly what the regulations are.


just do this one thing: tell them your engine got blown out, and you need a new one for your car, and you're wondering what the regulations are regarding used engines (since they're a HELL of a lot cheaper than brand new)

 

just so u know, jrsc = boost also, along with turbo.

 

engine swaps are very legal.

you have to use an engine (and all emission equipment from that engine) that comes from the same year, or newer car.

so if you have a 95 (obd1) integra, and want to put in a 98gsr motor, you have to also swap out the obd harness and use the 98 computer.

that is if you want to stay 100% legal.

the chances are that if you swap an engine, unless they look to see if the numbers match (VIN and engine#) they won't even notice it has a different engine.

hell, if you tell them you have a different engine in there than the original, they probably won't do anything, but run the numbers to make sure they aren't stolen.

they probably won't look to see if you have an OBD1/2 or whatever else.