Looking for advise.

I killed my motor and now I need to do a swap, I have 0 exp.

My main concern is cost, my second is keeping swap engine/smog legal in Cali.

Should I sacrifice ATTS and get a 92-96 motor or not? The ones I've been pricing can come shipped at around 1k, yet an 97-01 USDM SH Motor seems a lot harder to find and much more expensive. Ive yet to see find one for under 3k, and the Type S JDM is even more.

Will it be a legal swap in Cali if i get the 92-96 motor? I understand swap engine laws much like smog laws are the worst here.

 

Although I am very newb here, I do believe that it would not be smog legal if you swap an older engine into a newer car. If I am wrong, flame me, I should know this by now.

 

I've heard that also, what gets me is the following:

from smogcheck.ca.gov:
"Make sure the engine and emission control configuration on exhaust controlled vehicles are certified to the year of the vehicle or newer, and to the same or a more stringent new vehicle certification standard."

Since it says 'certified to the year' instead of 'the same year or newer' it leads me to believe you can as long as it would have passed emissions in 2000. But maybe it means 'engine must have been certfied by us in the year 2000'?

But I'm also a newb so i was hoping someone could clear this up for me. I don't want any part of failing any inspections or tests.