I found a really clean 1993 Civic VX with a 1998 USDM B18C1 swap out of state. The motor is completely stock with a stock Civic air box + custom aluminum piping, stock GSR header + GSR cat, 2.25 custom exhaust piping into a Dynomax oval muffler. Very clean, runs strong and it's hard to pass up...

I've never owned a swapped or heavily modded car in CA, so I haven't had to deal with the emission *****. I'm worried about the emissions/BAR because even though the motor is newer than the chassis, it's running a 95 OBD1 P72 ECU. Another reason is that the VX is an efficiency model with a stock EGR and misc. things that the GSR doesn't have. Would the ECU have to match the 98 motor - meaning having to covert completely to OBD2A? Before I go throwing down a chunk of change on a swapped car, I just wanted to make sure it will be able to pass here in CA. Any insight?

 

bump

 

Your going to need a OBD2 Cat to "really" pass BAR.

Also a USDM ECU for a 98 GSR or OBD 2 car.

My ref was an ***, so its close, but i dont know how close to being ok

 

That's what I'm uncertain of... both the motor and the ECU are USDM and are newer than the chassis - 1998 motor / 1995 ECU. The cat is the stock OBD2 cat but the 2nd O2 sensor is plugged since it's running OBD1. If the ECU has to match the motor - meaning converting everything completely to OBD2 then I'm not fooling with it. There's a lot of extra stuff involved that I don't want to mess with.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by The Clash &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That's what I'm uncertain of... both the motor and the ECU are USDM and are newer than the chassis - 1998 motor / 1995 ECU. The cat is the stock OBD2 cat but the 2nd O2 sensor is plugged since it's running OBD1. If the ECU has to match the motor - meaning converting everything completely to OBD2 then I'm not fooling with it. There's a lot of extra stuff involved that I don't want to mess with. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats exactly where i was at, so i sold my car

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TanCar &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Thats exactly where i was at, so i sold my car </TD></TR></TABLE>

So you tried having it inspected and it failed because it wasn't fully OBD2?

 

I failed because you cant use ECU jumpers anymore, I didn't have a $350 OBD2 CA CAT (i passed smog fine though) and i forgot the wire thingy to read codes