ok, i'm thinking about swapping after i finally broke 15's in my full interiored 90 civic si ( MAD FAST! hahaha). i was wondering what steps i needed to take if i wanted to make my car california smog legal. i was thinking about an ls motor because i heard that having a vtec model was not ca legal? if there's any websites that can basically give me the rundown on this process i'd like to know it.

 

you need a motor manufactured for a car sold in the united states .. like a 97 gsr motor.. or a 94 ls motor.. or a 93 civic si motor.. the block itself needs to be US, as far as the head, you wont have any probs with the visual inspection there... you could....
get an ls engine any year newer than your car..
get an ls block and put a vtec head on it..
get a b18c1 or b16 from a new gsr or civic si
get a single cam vtec from a 92-95 civic.
get a single cam head from a 92-95 civic and put it on your crx block.
and make sure you've got a cat and either stock or only mildly aggressive cam to pass the sniffer test..
also make sure to get the car registered as a hybrid.
those things will pass you here in cali, and if you can pass here, you can pass anywhere..


[Modified by elusiveracing7, 10:12 AM 5/7/2001]

 

you can put any motor in your car if you get a b16a from japan they say the closest thing to it is a del sol motor and they put that on the paper and you must have a receipt for the motor and get a helms and it has to look exactly like the picture and you have to have all the smog sensors for the motor i've had a friend do it before so i know this is how you do it passing smog is easy it's just the inspection