im thinkin about swapping either a JDM V7 STI HYBRID ENGINE EJ205/7 (AVCS) or a JDM V7 LEGACY ENGINE EJ205 (AVCS) hopefully before summer time.

how hard is it to get these motors to pass just the sniff test for smog?


Thanks,
Theo

(posted in bay area section because of smog question relating to bay area/ california)


Thanks,
Theo

 

everyone always says its impossible to smog a JDM motor here in CA even with a double catted DP and cat. i've asked this question because i was considering doing a JDM wrx conversion for my RS, so as far as i know its impossible...well let me rephrase "its impossible to get it smogged LEGALLY" lol

 

wow lol
i might have to re-think my options here.
so with 2 cats still no passing?

what about with tuning?

 

what about a USDM STI motor in a 2.5rs? can you get that legally done?

 

Noah of LIC Motorsports says its all in the wiring. He didn't bother to explain though, probably cause no one would have understood

look for the thread in the LIC Motorsports forum titled "no more conversions" and he mentions it towards the end of the thread

 

yes.

(if you can find a shop in the bay area to do the conversion)

 

I believe as long as the motor comes from a USDM car, and the motor comes from a newer or same year of the car, it is smog legal.

 

Basiaclly, Alot of the legality is in the wiring. With JDM engines chances are they lack alot of the emissions devices IE TGV's and Airpumps and whatnot.

 

It's been done and passed, so it can be done and passed. Ask the LIC guys (even though they no longer swap engines)

 

It can be done and passed, it can't be done to the letter of the law.

Emissions (sniffer) on a mild turbo car are easy....hell, they run cleaner with no cats than some cars with 'em, so a stock exhaust should do it. The problem is the OBD2 check, all the registers, parameters, etc, and it's a grey area.

Will it pass if you're running a USDM ECU? Probably. If you get an **** tech who looks and sees that your heads are different or your Japanese ECU doesn't report a parameter the way a US car is suppsed to, will you fail? Probably. CA is not a friendly place for grey-area swaps because you don't have anything to fall back on. The ECU checks are what will get you.