How do they know what year the motor is from? Do they run the engine number?

Jay Kim

 

the is a stamp on the head. there is a row of like four circles in da first one it will say the year (9/5) meaning '95. it looks something like dat

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by cbpro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">they don't know the year. they look at the block stamp and compare to there books. for example if you have a JDM gsr those say B18C where as the usdm ones say B18C1. so if a ref sees that you have this he will say ok it is a jdm motor and then make you go to the dealer and get a notice to show that the ecu has to be a usdm ecu for that particular motor. there is a fee that some dealers charge(100.00 or so) to do this. after that then the ref can test the motor and he has to see that the motor has all the smog parts in the same location as the usdm style motor. you can pass jdm motors here in the us as long as you use the usdm smog and ecu parts.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Maybe northern california is different... do you have any personal experiance with that?

Um in so cali, my friend went to the ref and they checked out the ECU by checking the serial number and looking for the P13-A01 (A meaning US)

As for how they checked what year it was, they looked at the head to determine the year. Even though the motor was out of a JDM 1994 prelude (we had the entire front clip) he marked it in the paperwork as being a 1993 motor, but it was okay because his car was a 92 civic.