California legal problems: swapping 4ag's

[IndiaDorifto7]

Is it legal in California to do a 4age swap with a newer 4age, such as an ae92 or ae101? Also, is it possible to get a 4agze smog approved in California using a stock airbox or something restrictive? I want to keep a 4age in the ae86 without swapping an SR20.

[yoshimitsuspeed]

It should be pretty easy. As I understand it the motor has to be newer than the chassis, needs to be USDM so it can't be 20v or JDM smallport GZE or anything like that and it needs to have all the emissions equipment original to the motor.
Since the requirements aren't engine or chassis specific I would suggest looking up the laws and requirements and possibly bringing up this topic in a CA specific forum or regional section. You will probably get more detailed input there.

[gotzoom?]

There are plenty of guys running around NorCal with all of the above. There are a couple BAR 4AGZE cars here and I think you can probably fly under the radar with a smallport if you don't say anything. The problem with a smallport is that you'll either need to do a cut/reweld on the smallport intake manifold or buy a manifold adapter plate from someone like T3. The smallport engine was only sold in fwd cars, so the throttle points at the firewall when in rwd configuration. As yoshimitsuspeed said, you need all emission components, ecu, etc from the engine you swap in. If you plan to use an electric fan, be sure and use a temperature activated switch or jerry rig it so the fan stays on at all time. BAR will fail you with a toggle switch on the fan. A buddy just went through this. I've called BAR several times and spoken to refs and all have been very helpful and friendly.

[AE86DailyDriver]

The engine doesn't need to be a USDM motor...Foreign motors are able to get BAR'ed in as long as they have a USDM (more specifically, must have been offered in California) equivalent. So JDM 4age's are legal as long as that version of the 4AGE was offered in a US car. Therefor you can legally register/smog any of the 16 valve 4AGE's and the first gen 4AGZE...Sadly there were no vehicals offered in California that had the 20 valve motors. And I think if you are using a JDM (or any other foreign sourced) motor, you need to convert the emissions equipment to what would be in the USDM car that had that engine (assuming they are different).

http://www.importtuner.com/newsstand/impp_0608_ca_engine_swap_guidelines/
For the life of me I can't seem to find the page on the BAR site that covered all of these rules. I know I found it on the site before.

So I believe these are the requirements that a foreign sourced engine needs to meet to pass the referee inspection. *Keep in mind, this is regarding engine changes, NOT engine replacements...Replacements being that the engine is the same Size, from the same year, and from the same make and model...in this case, there is no need for an inspection...IE: AE88 sourced engine in an AE86 SR5 does not need to be refereed in.

-Engine must be same year or newer (if the same year, it may need to even be from a later month, but Im not sure)
-Engine must be from the same vehicle class (Passenger cars and light duty pick-ups/SUV being the same class by the way...but no motorcycle to car, or a Heavy Duty truck)...So a V8 Tundra engine or even a 6.6l duramax out of a HD3500 is legal in a car, but a 7.8 Duramax out of Kodiak 4500 (Considered Medium Duty truck) is illegal. At least that is how I read it from the actual BAR website.
-All of the Smog equipment for the chassis of the car needs to be in place and working (IE: Cats)
-All engine emissions equipment that came on the engine your are swapping in needs to be present. Its officially read as "the Donor vehical", so this why I believe you would need to convert the emission equipment to the US version if it differs (Ie: If you are using a Jdm engine that comes with MAP sensors while the USDM version of said engine comes with a MAF...then I think you need to convert it to the MAF.
-For an engine swapped in (both a USDM and/or foreign sourced engine), it needs to have been in a car that was register-able with said engine in the state of California. So even if a version of a JDM engine was offered in the US as a 48 state car, it still wouldn't be able to pass the inspection.

I wish I could find the link to the actual California BAR info on this to confirm this for you.

[phanist]

Dang.... So that mean there is no legal street 4age 20v car in cali..
Or maybe even the whole usa

[yoshimitsuspeed]

No the 20v is not legal to run on the street or in a registered vehicle in the USA

[IndiaDorifto7]

I heard some guys installed 4agzes into their ae86s; they got them through smog by replacing the air filter/ cold air intake with a restrictive stock air filter so it passes, then they removed it once the got home after the test and they changed the 20v decals to pass through visual inspection.(sneaky, sneaky! ) Is it possible to do this? I don't think it's legal though...

[yoshimitsuspeed]

I heard some guys installed 4agzes into their ae86s; they got them through smog by replacing the air filter/ cold air intake with a restrictive stock air filter so it passes, then they removed it once the got home after the test

One thing that I just remembered about swaps in CA is that the swap must have come from the factory with the required drivetrain. So for example you could not take a WRX engine and throw a 2WD trans on it and pass smog or you could not take a 1GR and throw it in a car transversely mounted. You could however do a 2GR transversely mounted because they came like that in USDM cars.

I do not know of a GZE that came in a FR car from the factory so it doesn't really matter what you did to the intake. It would take a pretty sloppy smog tech to not realize what you had.
If the GZE was transversely mounted or if it had come in a longitudinal car then yes you could just put all the emission equipment to stock and should be able to pass. But then it begs the question. Why change it when you are done? The stock intake pre SC is not a huge restriction at stockish power levels so why not just play it safe and keep it legal?

they changed the 20v decals to pass through visual inspection.(sneaky, sneaky! ) Is it possible to do this? I don't think it's legal though...

Hmm, would it be legal to modify your motor to look like another motor to try to sneak an illegal motor through smog? Not sure about that one.
I can tell you your smog tech would have to be mister bean to have any chance of getting away with it.

[AE86DailyDriver]

I do not ever remember reading or hearing about anything about changing the drivetrain layout and/or engine positioning.

Oh and here is the link that I couldn't remember before to the CA BAR's engine swap guidelines:
http://www.bar.ca.gov/80_barresources/07_autorepair/engine_change_guidelines.html