my cousin bought his first car, a 2000 civic si, and the car was really good taken care of, but i guess the previous owner replaced the engine, because according to him the old one was blown, but he told my cousin that he didn't have a receipt for the engine.

But here is the problem, yesterday when i went over his house to check it out, i asked him if he had checked all the vin#'s on the car and he said just the ones on the dashboard, tranny, firewall and door. So i took a look under the motor to check for the one over the oil pan and the vin number was removed.

I tried matching the numbers on the block right under neat the b16a2 but they dont match the vin on the car. Now here is our question, is there anyway to check if the new b16 in it, is a legit motor and not a stolen one?

thanks in advance.

 

Oh damn... Cops arent going to like that one. :/

 

well i dont think they would trip too much, simply because if you look at the engine it looks all stock and it looks like the original, plus si's came with the b16a2, he just wants to find out if there is a way to check if its stolen...

 

bump.

 

thats sketchy man.... cops aren't gonna be to humored

 

So theres another b16a2 motor in there or a jdm b16?

 

its another b16a2 motor of a 2000 si. we just need to know if there is a way to check if its legit. is there anyway to match the numbers on the engine block right under neat the b16a2 to the vin?

 

honestly man if it runs fine and what not id just leave it be as long as all the vins on the body panels and dash match. its practically the same thing as having a swap and not knowing where the engine came from which thousands of people on here are prob in the same situation

 

im always scared of stuff. i just bougth some GSR seats and i made the guy give me a bill of sale and printed his craigslist ad cause i dont want my car taken away!

 

Just don't drive like crazy, drive normally and stay under the radar and you should be fine. I have plenty of friends running R motors without vin tags and they been doing it for years without a hitch...just be smart about it when driving. Oh yea, kind of helps that none of us are running after market exhaust set ups for that very reason, not worth the trouble of losing the motor because a cop notices a loud car. There was a guy on this forum long ago that did get his motor and tranny taken way due to no vin tags, but I think thats a pretty rare incident.

 

Good luck. I can't imagine this will turn out well.

Anyway, I hope someone can give you some good info on how to actually fix the problem. I'm not from CA, so there's not a lot I can offer.

 

Ground vins = jacked ****

You know all these guys who report their car stolen every day, and get their car back as a shell.

Those motors come from somewhere..

 

Is it any actual B16A2, or a JDM B16A? (the latter would explain the lack of a VIN tag) Other than that I don't know, i'm sure there are potential reasons to remove a VIN tag that don't involve theft, but i'm sure as hell having a hard time thinking of any.

 

well... thanks guys for the input. i don't think he will have a problem, because his car is all stock not even lowered. but yeah it is a US b16a2 not a JDM motor. he just wishes there was a way to check if it's legit.

 

i understand all of your concerns and i wouldnt want stolen parts either...but where do you live that ANYONE checks all of your VIN #'s to make sure they match? ive had several different cars registered and NO ONE has EVER checked any vin other than either my door OR my dash...thats it, ive never had any law enforcement or insurance or dmv ask to pop my hood or anything about my car...yuck i cant even think of doing a motor swap if thats how **** was...

 

here in the 209 (central valley), California, the CHP's are really strict at times, and they will pop your hood for no reason, i once got a ticket for suppostly having after market cam and no-name headers, when in reality i was missing the cam plastic cover, and the cam was stock, and the headers were stock as well just missing the shield cover.

And i noticed that about 50% of the time i gotten pulled over and been asked to pop my hood cops will look for vin # on tranny or/and motor.

 

Try going DMV or CHP...thats what im doing.

 

imo thats dumb. telling them that you possibly have stolen ****. if they think its stolen (which they probably will) then they will just take it.
And isnt the vin only on the tranny? you could go to a junkyard and get a vin off of one of the tranny's there or buy a legit Si Tranny and replace the one you have, then they cant say ****.

 

^^^
same reason why he doesn't want to call the CHP, because he's affraid they are going to take it away. now i heard that cops can match the block number to a vin number is this true?

 

I went to CHP before and told them I wanted to inquire about a vin because I was thinking of buying a tranny off of CL and needed to have the vin checked to see if it was legit or stolen.They didnt ask me to see my car or anything. You dont go there saying,my car is outside, can you check this for me.

 

well i guess thats one way to do it. I am so thankful that there are no laws and bs like that down here.

 

screw CA Christ that place juggles more stolen motors than senior citizens that die in nj.

 

die grinder and carve some new ones?

Call them and ask that's all i can say and lord help you if it's a hot motor..

 

Wow...I have never heard of the law checking legit/stolen motors here in TX. We got some "Super Troopers" for sure, and they like to write tickets like crazy, but NEVER heard of our cops checking vin#'s on blocks.....

 

Times get hard.. people steal cars for money.. these people who own these cars get upset.. the law has to do something.