ok heres the deal ive posted this question before but not gottent he answer i was looking for. I have a 97 ls in my 92 hatch.. i took it to a smog station i live in lake tahoe cali and they got a printout telling me i needed to go to a referee. so i set up my appoitment to go. my question is i kno you can swap a motor in and get it bar certifiedas long as it is the same year or newer then the year of the car. but since the motor is obd II and the car is obd I will it still pass and get me my sticker. i have all the smog epuiptment hooked up and have no check engine light or anything like that. plasese let me kno if you have had any expierence with this. thanks

 

You should be fine. OBD2 has even better emission standards than OBD1. You will have to obide by those standards. You just better hope your exhaust pipe is blowing good and you have a cat.

 

i def have a cat and it the guy at the smog shop said it will have no problem passing the sniffer test

 

I'm assuming that you didn't convert to the car to OBD2.

I'd recommend that you talk to the Referee (real nicely) and state that due to the fact that the same engine configuration was legal as OBD1 in 95, that's the set-up that you chose for obvious cost reasons.

The reasoning would be as follows; Let's say that an individual installed and got through the Referee a 95 LS. He then blew up the engine. At that point, the 97 block would only be considered as a replacement and all the original 95 smog stuff would still be applicable.

However, the Referee may not be willing to listen to reason.

At that point, you are allowed to go to another Referee when you go in for your second check.

(I've got a 89 Civic with certified 95 GSR)

Wes V

 

yea i kno what your talking about i just need to know if an OBDII motor can pass in an obdI car. thats the main thing i need to kno . i have heard so many dif answeres. and i do have all smog equip. hooked up

 

i suggest going on in and finding out....

 

thats a good suggestion....lol

 

you can use a 97 motor but do not tell him it is a 97. say it is a 95. if you say it is 97 then he will test as a 97 and you are screwed. you should also swap intake mans to be safe to a 94-95 ls intake man and tbody as to pass visual. reason is the books will show certain sensors are different or in different areas between 94-95 ls mans and 96- models. make sure you have a OBD1 ls ecu,stock header with the O2, no check engine lights. timing is dead on, stock intake hose and airbox or intake with carb eo for the motor and not the car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by smart monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you can use a 97 motor but do not tell him it is a 97. say it is a 95. if you say it is 97 then he will test as a 97 and you are screwed. you should also swap intake mans to be safe to a 94-95 ls intake man and tbody as to pass visual. reason is the books will show certain sensors are different or in different areas between 94-95 ls mans and 96- models. make sure you have a OBD1 ls ecu,stock header with the O2, no check engine lights. timing is dead on, stock intake hose and airbox or intake with carb eo for the motor and not the car.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats kinda retarded. The will know the year of the engine, trust me. So lying to him will only further **** them off. If anything you tell them you don't know the year, not some other bullshit year.

To answer the question, technically you will need to convert the car to OBD-II in order for it to pass. This will include bringing in the OBD-II tester port, which they will verify if it works or not.

 

what do u mean obdII tester port

 

that is what I was getting at. just play dumb and just don't tell them it is a 97. saying it is a 95 and making it visually look like one will not also raise too many questions. and it is not retarded as not all refs know how to check years of motors by block designation. if that was the case then all those guys that have jdm motors would not pass as a lot of them are old motors

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by smart monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">that is what I was getting at. just play dumb and just don't tell them it is a 97. saying it is a 95 and making it visually look like one will not also raise too many questions. and it is not retarded as not all refs know how to check years of motors by block designation. if that was the case then all those guys that have jdm motors would not pass as a lot of them are old motors</TD></TR></TABLE>

Incorrect. How so? Simple, the engine, contrary to popular belief, does NOT need to be the same year or newer as the chassis that it is going into in all cases. I reffed a 92 B17 in my 93 CX hatch, and yes, they knew darn good and well that it was a 92 engine. I will explain more later.

 

I am not saying it has to be newer but it is supposed to be of spec to what the year of the year it is offered in, example is if you take a old B16a1 motor and put it in a 92-civic you can pass those but you have to make it all OBD1 compliant. reason is there were no B16a1's in the usa but there were b16a3's which were from the 94-95delsol's so refs use that as a reference. in your case that you passed cause you had a 92 motor and that 92-93 gsr motors exist in the usa and even though the motor is a 92 they can still use the specs of a 93 gsr and pass it as your car is 93 and not 94 and up and it is still OBD1. in the other guys case he can use a 97 cause it is still a B18b. those existed through 94-2000. it is just the electronics that are different. but if he uses the 94-95 electronics and makes it 94-95 spec in terms of smog sensors on the intake man then most refs will pass it given he just says it is a 94-95 and not say it is 97. reason is if he comes right out and says it is a 97 motor they will look for a 97 ecu and obd2 parts. not all refs will double check. not saying they are stupid or naive but some of them will just go by what you say. I have even seen some guys pass a ref with a OBD2 motor with OBD0 electronics but that is not always the case as maybe that ref did not care to check.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by smart monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I am not saying it has to be newer but it is supposed to be of spec to what the year of the year it is offered in, example is if you take a old B16a1 motor and put it in a 92-civic you can pass those but you have to make it all OBD1 compliant. reason is there were no B16a1's in the usa but there were b16a3's which were from the 94-95delsol's so refs use that as a reference. in your case that you passed cause you had a 92 motor and that 92-93 gsr motors exist in the usa and even though the motor is a 92 they can still use the specs of a 93 gsr and pass it as your car is 93 and not 94 and up and it is still OBD1. in the other guys case he can use a 97 cause it is still a B18b. those existed through 94-2000. it is just the electronics that are different. but if he uses the 94-95 electronics and makes it 94-95 spec in terms of smog sensors on the intake man then most refs will pass it given he just says it is a 94-95 and not say it is 97. reason is if he comes right out and says it is a 97 motor they will look for a 97 ecu and obd2 parts. not all refs will double check. not saying they are stupid or naive but some of them will just go by what you say. I have even seen some guys pass a ref with a OBD2 motor with OBD0 electronics but that is not always the case as maybe that ref did not care to check.</TD></TR></TABLE>

That is correct. I was simply replying to your original comment of:

"if that was the case then all those guys that have jdm motors would not pass as a lot of them are old motors"

which is incorrect as you yourself pointed out. Also, there never were and B16a1's... only B16a's JDM engines have no number designations.

 

don't take this wrong but the way you responded to my posts you try to make people feel dumb or they are all wrong. I am helping this guy out with info from what I go through. I go to the ref often and talk to them a lot and get all the info on doing swaps. so this isall info and experience that I accumulate through the years of swapping and going to the ref. in truth I was not wrong in saying what I said about jdm motors. refs at least in my area never really check the years of the motor. they just go by the block code and what you tell them. I had a case where a guy did a swap like the way the original post said and the guy told them the motor was a OBD2 Motor in a OBD1 car and for sure the ref said you have to convert to OBD2. I had a second case where a different person did what I said and put a OBD2 motor and did not say a thing but made it OBD1 compliant and when the ref asked him what year it is he just said I think it is a 95. the ref did not say a thing and just tested it as a 95 and the car passed. so my whole point is the year to some degree does not matter as much as having the right electronics and smog equipment designated for the year of the motor to be tested. and sorry if I am not as technical as you, I just did the B16a"1" as a example or saying it does not exist here but where as B16a3 exist here in the us and that is what they will use as a reference.


Modified by smart monkey at 12:44 PM 10/24/2004

 

thnks for all the input... i have it converted as far as i kno to obdI besides the intake manifold and the throttle body so im gonna go see if i pass. if not i will switch the manifold and tb

 

let us all know what happens.