So I just bought my buddy's ek hatch with b20 vtec motor swap saturday night. lucky me I got pulled over today for the aftermarket exhaust on the car. I explained to the cop that I just bought the car, havent gotten it smogged or registered yet, but he told me to pop the hood. There he saw the red top engine, aftermarket fuel rail, adjustable cams, and a few other "illegal engine mods" He gave me a fix it ticket for the exhaust and told me I need to go to a referee here in Southern California and get everything changed to make it legal and show up in court in october. He also took pictures of all the mods to the engine, is that normal? The guy I bought it from said this happened to a buddy of his twice, and the first time he went to the referee and took care of it and cleared it up in court, but the second time he said he simply went to court and paid the fees. Now my question is, if I go to a ref, aren't they just going to tell me I need to take the engine out as its not supposed to be in that car? and do I NEED to go to the ref or can I bypass it and somehow keep the engine? I am new to all of this and I would really appreciate any feedback you guys could give me, I just got into hondas and dont know much so I thought id ask all you guys that know your stuff, thanks.

 

if the swap is done right, got some paprers on the motor, cat hooked up, engine newer and less miles then the chassis, no check engine lights an all that crap then go to the ref and get ur tag. if you were not cited for the other things then the pictures he took violate your right to privacy. he can't order you to pop your hood without either a search warrent or probable cause. f.t.p, they take waaay too many liberties! anywho, the pictures are non-admissable as any sort of evidence against you as there's no citation or charge in question to tie them to.

 

yup racerx is right bro. it sucks to live in cali with that swap problem. in florida no cop will ever tell you to pop the hood and you dont need to get a ref to look at your engine to get the car tag registered. you have 2 options... pay a ref money or you can buy a b18b1 and slap it to just to get the tag.

 

my bad i meant to say a d series.

 

well the thing is, i dont have papers for the engine, im pretty sure it is a japanese motor and everything comes up clean, but like I said no proof. and since its a b20 block/b16 head, is it even possible to get it bar'd? and on the note about popping the hood, I told the cop that the latch was broken and I dont even know if i could pop it, so he told me if i dont he will get a crow-bar and bust it open, he can't do that can he? to be honest this was my VERY first time being pulled over so i was a little nervous and didnt know what to do. How'd I know my first time bein pulled over would be when I got that car though? lol

 

Doubt the crow bar would have been used a warrent would b needd for that

 

if he would of opened it with a crow bar HE CAN GET IN TROUBLE!! AND YOU WILL HAVE A LAWSUIT AGAINST HIM for multiple reasons just buy a d series for like 400 bucks who cares if the tranny is bad. it will only be used for the bar

 

cop did have probable cause. he could argue the fact that he had an aftermarket exhaust which led him to believe he may have illegal mods. i don't know about the laws in your state, but if a cop asks us here in CA to pop open anything, then he's got the right. and he was right. OP has a truck motor in his car. that's illegal in CA.

as for the crow bar, i think you're in the right. they don't have a right to pry open your vehicle and risk any damage to it. i've heard of people actually breaking their latch and/or breaking their hood release inside the car to prevent the hood from opening. they've had success with it.

 

damn sucks to be in cali yo. i got stopped by a cop once telling me hey i see you have power and that you are fast in that race you had abuot 2 miles down the road if you would of kept going faster and made a few turns you would of lose me but ima give you a speeding ticket and a improper safety ticket as well since i dont have your speed clocked so how fast did you go? i just smiled at him and said hey man its a honda he laughed and came back with another ticket for a tail light i was like wowwww next time ima just keep on running