im going to be swapping a WRX motor into my RS this summer, i was curious what the process is for getting it certified. do i just make an appointment with the smog ref? and what kind of paperwork do i need? do i need to prove i bought the engine or anything like that? thanks for any info.

 

Basically YES to everything,

Just call and make an appointment.

When you take your car down to the Ref you should have the following:
1. receipt showing what car the engine came from and where you purchased or picked it up from. (They want this info to make sure the engine is not stolen or JDM)
2. All your paperwork for your RS (registration...ect)
3. Make sure that the emissions is at least OBDII compliant, and that you DO NOT have CEL. That will fail you right away. Also the Ref is will do a COMPLETE visual inspection, so make sure you have everything stock (be it from the WRX for the engine/exhaust) My EGT censor failed and I have a resistor in place to bypass it, basically they found it and failed me....after replacing that it passed and my car got certified.

If you have any other questions, give Adam @ LIC a call. He should be able to shove you in the right direction.

Cheers

EddyL.

 

as far as a recipt for the engine. can i just bring the title from the donor car (i bought a totaled wrx).

i was planning on installing an uppipe when i put the engine in because i have heard people do that and pass with no problem, and its a pain to do it afterwards. has anyone tried this and succeded? other than that it would be completely stock. im not really sure how visible the up pipe is, i know its pretty burried in there.

 

Unless the lack of an uppipe cat causes the car to fail the exhaust sniffer test (which I dont think it does) or if the referee actually knows what a stock WRX exhaust system is (which is also rare) then you should be fine with the uppipe.

HOWEVER, make it look stock.

 

When the ref inspected my car, he had diagrams of ALL the emmision equipment. So I would suggest that if you want to do the up-pipe, do a catless STI unit. It looks very similar to the WRX unit, but without the Kitty.

My Ref inspection took almost 2 hours to complete with over 1 1/2 hours just on the visual. They even checked the ECU to make sure that it matched the engine. I went to the one here in Sacramento, it may be that this center is more **** then others, or this may be common procedure.

The totaled title should be ok. Do you have a sales receipt for the car, or was it a insurance buyback?

Cheers and good luck

EddyL.

 

im buying the totaled car from a friend, who bought it back from insurance.

 

Well, Ref stations vary everywhere. The good news is that they usually don't know what a stock uppipe looks like, nor does it really matter. It's not necessary to have that cat, it's only there so that Subaru could get the car to pass Cold-start emmissions when they brought it over to the states. They don't have the same catalyst as the other two, infact they have been denied when we go to sell old cats to the scrap guys. So as long as you have the stock two cats in the downpipe, you should be fine. Looking at your location (San Jose), happens to be easiest Ref station that we have sent cars to. The good thing there is that they have seen at least 6 conversions from me, so they are familiar with the situation. I myself use the Ref station up in Santa Rosa, only because they are closer and are also familiar with our cars.

-Adam

 

thanks for the info adam.

so just to clarify, even if i obviously have a aftermarket uppipe its ok?

also where can i find the number for the ref station, and what all will i have to bring when i go to get it checked?

 

call adam at lic he'll do it for around 8,500$


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