Well I just got back from the ref, and I passed. Woo Hoo! Piece of cake. No worries. It was probably one of the easiest things to ever have to deal with. The ref is not the devil. They're angels.

Specs
00 B18C5
92 Civic DX HB - EH2

My swap is now legal here in the Golden State. OBDII goodness.

Here's some pics of the ride and sticker.

Weak sauce ride. It will get painted soon.


Engine Bay Pic.


BAR sticker on door jamb


Close-up shot of BAR sticker(sorry for bad quality)


All in all, this was one hell of a ride. I was stressing so much, but once I come to grips with it, I had nothing to worry about. The car is running strong and I have everything I need to have on the car. I never doubted that it wouldn't pass, but after hearing all those ref horror stories, it kinda scared me. The ref myth of them being ******** is definitely not true. I've dealt with more ******** at dealerships. The guy that tested mine was cool and calm, and the test was over before I knew it.

Hope you guys enjoy!

 

Hahaha.. Who's the idjit that painted the panel in front of the windshield? I have NEVER seen that before.

Good job with the BAR sticker.

 

which ref station did u go to?

fremont or alameda?

 

Fremont.

 

congrats my fellow B.A.R. brother.

 

Been saying it's easy for a long time.

 

Can I borrow your ECU so I can get my BAR sticker too.

 

Sick!!! Congrats man..

 

how did you pull that off?

i am going to get a 88 CRX with a JDM B16a

any pointers on what i will need would be very useful

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BCRUZ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">congrats my fellow B.A.R. brother. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Me too You're gonna love showing that to the cops when you get pulled over, feels good to be legit

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tonyXcom &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can I borrow your ECU so I can get my BAR sticker too.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah no problem. Just LMK when. The hatch isn't my daily. It's my fun toy.

And thanks to all the other members out there that wrote up good articles on hybrid swaps. It feels good. A big *** relief off my back. All in all, it wasn't too difficult. The hardest part was finding OBDII parts and running them cleanly in the car. Wiring is probably the most difficult part.

 

i can only IMAGINE how it feels to have a BAR sticker, i'll be making my 4TH trip to the state ref on the 27th, but hey....everytime i get closer and closer

congrats

 

nice! i hope i get my swap soon too.

 

If you watched the process, can you tell me what they looked at, checked, etc.

Like did they look for 2 O2 sensors, did they hook up an OBD scanner to your car etc.

 

Ride
Corners

IMHO

Thanks for sharing, I'm glad I don't live in Smogville, USA

 

The process pretty much went as so:

Look up engine, find vacuum diagrams. Compare diagrams to what's in the car.

Visual inspection (check over all sensors, hoses, etc. They didn't look at the FTPS and fuel tank though)

Preconditioning run (200 seconds at 2500RPM)
-After that, about 30 seconds at 2500RPM followed by 30 seconds of idle. I think they did one more run at 2500 and then another 10 seconds at idle.

They then did a gas cap fitting test. Hooked it up to a sensor and checked leakage.

That was about it. They then printed the BAR sticker and that was it. Paid my $38.25 and I was gone. Pretty simple process. They never put me on the rollers.

They never hooked up the DLC to check for ECU readings. I was quite surprised at that. They were in no real rush, and neither was I. I was the only appointment they had for the whole day.

My car passed with flying colors emissions wise. Easily below all the averages they have for all the readings.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by w00t! &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ride
Corners

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Oh believe me, the car's exterior is crap. I bought it cheap. The previous owner did all that nice stuff to it. Focused more on the engine and smog standards than the exterior.

Unlike most people I focus on the things that are important to me, and don't care whether looks are important to other people. First thing I ever wanted to do was make sure my motor was in perfect condition. So what if the corners are gay? I know that, so do you guys. When all is said and done it will be clean, but it is nowhere near done. I've only just started.

 

did they check your ECU to see if that was the proper one for the motor?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BCRUZ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">did they check your ECU to see if that was the proper one for the motor?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Come to think of it, I don't think they did. I pretty much saw the whole process but some parts I stepped out for a smoke or I was sitting down sneezing my *** off. Damn allergies. They may have did it when I didn't look.

 

Good job with everything, looks good. Is there ANY way a jdm itr swap can get one of those? Different ecu, use a high flow cat, through tuning to pass????

 

You would have to use the USDM ECU so that it picks up all the sensors. You might be able to get it to pass but I'm not sure. This has been discussed many times but I've never paid any mind to it since it doesn't pertain to me. You would also maybe want to use your stock cat.

 

Some more advice for those planning on BAR'ing your car. Make sure your aftermarket pieces have CARB #'s that match the engine. They had to check my CARB-EO# for the AEM CAI I had to make sure it was for my specific application.

 

so did you wire in all the OBDII plugs into the harness??? Things like the secondary O2 and whatnot??? If not how the heck did you keep the check engine light off when your running the OBDII ECU???

 

Wired every single thing. All the EVAP stuff. Fuel Tank stuff. O2 sensors. If you can find it on an ITR, it's in my 92 hatch. I like to think of my hatch as an ITR with a different body style.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by acuracing &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Unlike most people I focus on the things that are important to me, and don't care whether looks are important to other people. First thing I ever wanted to do was make sure my motor was in perfect condition. So what if the corners are gay? I know that, so do you guys. When all is said and done it will be clean, but it is nowhere near done. I've only just started.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well said I live in San Jose too. Savin up some cash for my B18C. Maybe we can hook up when i get my motor.