VTEC engine swap in CA - Honda Prelude Forum

spin_r_g · 10-30-2002, 05:06 PM

For any of you that have switched from a f22a/h23a engine to a h22a in Cali have you guys had any problems with visual when smogging your car? I'm probably going to swap another engine in but not sure if I can get it smogged. All I know is the engine has to be same year or newer then the car.

4TH Gen_Type S · 10-30-2002, 06:57 PM

[SUB[EX] · 10-30-2002, 10:10 PM

I hear it only matters if you get a smog ticket and have to go to a STATE smog check.

SLICK96 · 11-04-2002, 05:38 PM

What I don't understand w/ this issue is how so many hundreds, if not thousands of Cali Honda owners get away w/ swapping if the smog laws are so tight. My brother owns a 96 Teg GS, and wants to swap in a JDM ITR engine, but is paranoid of smog laws. I know that SO MANY people swap & get away w/ it, but what exactly do you have to do, besides try slipping the smog guy a hundred?

J

Red4WS · 11-04-2002, 05:51 PM

I have the same exact question...Im drawn to getting the H22A1 that way I know it will smog. But people say if your vaccum lines are hooked up correctly then the JDM h22 will pass. So who knows!

spin_r_g · 11-04-2002, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SLICK96
What I don't understand w/ this issue is how so many hundreds, if not thousands of Cali Honda owners get away w/ swapping if the smog laws are so tight. My brother owns a 96 Teg GS, and wants to swap in a JDM ITR engine, but is paranoid of smog laws. I know that SO MANY people swap & get away w/ it, but what exactly do you have to do, besides try slipping the smog guy a hundred?

J

All the guys I know with swapped motors are paying off the smog guys. I know you can do it legally by bringing the car to a smog ref and having all the papers, and making sure everything is in proper order all the sensors vaccum lines etc..

Red4WS · 11-05-2002, 10:25 AM

what sort of papers do you need and where is a smog ref. Are they easy to please or is it really complicated?

MidNKight-lude · 11-05-2002, 12:24 PM

ok here is wat i have learn from experince word of mouth and from working at my shops. As california smog laws goes, cars that are 4 year or less dotn' have to smog till it is 4 years old. that means current any car bought on 11/5/98 don't have to be smog as of yet. That means Tegs, Civic and so forth dont' have to meet any smog requirement for a while. For the rest of us older Hum ho

we do it every two years. Most of these guys start there swap right after they smog. that means two years with teh fun car till you either (1) return to stock. or (2) the cheaper of the two] is to pay a smog guy off. slip an extra hundred or two here and there. this method is illegal or the two. As someone had also mention, ther is a way to get your car legalied after a swap. Cause come on people rebuilt old cars and they aren't using the old engine now are they. And some engine just blow up, so people get it checked out.

I will talk about the two engine type, first is JDM engine. With the JDM engine, when they get to the US, they actually have to have a reason to be imported to the US. most ppl get by, by sayin that they are being used as a decortive peice that sites in a show room or there living room floor.

If you were going to install it into a car, tons of paper work has to be done to get it to meet US or cali smog legalization.

So it will be much easier to swap in a USDM engine. and yes JDM engine can pass cali smog, but it that state ref that kills people.

Ok now on to the USDM engine. I believe cali law states that you can swap into your car and engine that is the same ages or older. So most people look for older engine if not the same ages one. But come on wat 95- ppl would want a engine from a 5th gen. those are OBDII. Then next part of the law that i have heard about is this. The engine that is swap into a car has to be the same Liter or less. Meaning F22 can't go to a H23, but a H23 or F22 can go into a H22. I dont' know how some old mussile(sp) car get pass by puttin in a Big block. but this is what i have heard. ( a civic with a B18 is way illegal).

I am goin to mention hybrid engine in here too. I belive that if you put a vtec head on the engine, it is ok. cause the block will have the same Vin number as the car, and ther is no vin number on the head. seeing as that is how it is. i doubt all cops or lil smoggie know all the engine code. so if i built a H23 vtec. it wont' be notiable. or for the tegs a Ls/vtec, correct me if i am wrong but the LS are B18 any how rite?

i think i got the engine parts cover. Being a San Diego resident and have friend with insane motor swap i have heard all the crap about it. I got buddy who has a H22 in a civic coup.

yes it is fast. But well ther was a Street racing bust a while back. they went to the gas station and had all the cars open ther hood. It like so many tickets it is insane. we are talkin about 13 different infraction

this will discourage ppl from doing swaps. But my buddy havin a h22 in his civic was let go cause he had the fastest and cleanest swap out of all the b16 civic

(that mean H22 are better ) . I also have a buddy po.com that got a fully built turbo prelude. cops did a barricade to the drag strip and he had his engine hood pop. they sent him to the State ref. but he got out of it(thankfully). So ther are just ways around the state ref.

Ok here the biggie. If you are sent to the state Ref, your ass so out of luck. That means one let your car be a trailer queen. or two return your car to stock, or try to get as many legal parts as you can. THere is no B.S. with these guys. I wil say right now that i went to go have my car smog a while back. The guy that did it was like chilln. i was stock mind you. All he did was pop the hood, look for any crazy mod (stock really) and just hook it up and ran the car. he didnt' check no Vin number on the block to match the car. he didn't bother to check it i had the right engine. type so most places in socal are ok, you got an engine, no turbo or SC, it looks stock. and it fits the car type ok let run the test.

So i hope this clears up some air on engine swap that people do. Unless you are caught, no one will know. so if your in cali, stay out of the street races and you wil be fine

i should mention taht my buddy has a TT supra that is so not smog legal, but his car got to pass smog soon, so i know he goin to pay some1 off. either that return it to stock for a few days and smog it and go back to being a 400 whp BPU supra

And all this info is what i belive, i could be wrong. IF anyone heard anything different feel free to correct me.

SLICK96 · 11-08-2002, 12:07 AM

Goddamn... now I'm panicking. I just found out that I'll be heading back to SoCal. I'm happy about going back home for a while, but I'm not happy about all of the smog bs. This makes me nervous.....

J

LudeDrew · 11-08-2002, 07:07 PM

I just traded my prelude for a 3kgt (see other post) last week and had to have it smogged here in San Diego. I had a jdm h22a in my prelude if you dont know.

In my case, the smog tech looked at my hood for references and then looked at my block. He started to freak out for a sec and wouldnt smog it because my hood said 2.3l and my motor was a 2.2, He looked up the motor in his little book of motors, and found that it was a prelude motor. I didnt say it was JDM, i did say I swapped motors before hand tho.

The Test:
He checked all emissions equipment, it was all there, I passed visual inspection. I failed the first of the four tests do to HC (PPM) being too high. They said I needed a new cat, they put in a new cat tested it again, and I passed. That was it.

What you should do:
Run your car for a good 30mins to an hour to get the ol' cat nice and toasty. Take it in and tell them you have swapped your motor so that way they test your 2.2L and not your 2.3L if you had SI. because the smog machine has different values for the two different motors.

Other notes:
Even with the new cat and passing I looked at the printout, my HC (PPM) was 88, with the maximum being 88 or less to pass.. I was borderline. So next time I go to smog I will probably fail.

Hope this helps

EDIT: Total cost out the door with them replacing the cat was $274.00...So it wasnt cheap smoggin my car.

btw, if anyone needs a motor swapped into a prelude ill do it for $300 bux if your in the San Diego area, Im low on cash and I am a student.

SLICK96 · 11-09-2002, 04:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by LudeDrew
I just traded my prelude for a 3kgt (see other post) last week and had to have it smogged here in San Diego. I had a jdm h22a in my prelude if you dont know.

In my case, the smog tech looked at my hood for references and then looked at my block. He started to freak out for a sec and wouldnt smog it because my hood said 2.3l and my motor was a 2.2, He looked up the motor in his little book of motors, and found that it was a prelude motor. I didnt say it was JDM, i did say I swapped motors before hand tho.

The Test:
He checked all emissions equipment, it was all there, I passed visual inspection. I failed the first of the four tests do to HC (PPM) being too high. They said I needed a new cat, they put in a new cat tested it again, and I passed. That was it.

What you should do:
Run your car for a good 30mins to an hour to get the ol' cat nice and toasty. Take it in and tell them you have swapped your motor so that way they test your 2.2L and not your 2.3L if you had SI. because the smog machine has different values for the two different motors.

Other notes:
Even with the new cat and passing I looked at the printout, my HC (PPM) was 88, with the maximum being 88 or less to pass.. I was borderline. So next time I go to smog I will probably fail.

Hope this helps

EDIT: Total cost out the door with them replacing the cat was $274.00...So it wasnt cheap smoggin my car.

btw, if anyone needs a motor swapped into a prelude ill do it for $300 bux if your in the San Diego area, Im low on cash and I am a student.

Drew, I don't know about doing a JDM swap right away, but, 'til my stock H23 blows, do you know any SOLID shops who do turbo tuning? I'm talking about rod swaps, & all???

J

LudeDrew · 11-10-2002, 03:06 AM

As far as San Diego goes, there are a couple, most common shops are PannAuto, Group5, Engineuity cant think of any others off top of my head.

PannAuto: Great place to go, sometimes there prices are a tad higher then others but you get better quality work.

Group5: I hear they do some good work, never actually been there tho.

Engineuity: This place is always the cheapest, if you say PannAuto said part "X" is $300, they would tell you $250 then. But cheaper prices come at a cost (no pun intended), they sometimes lag at doing work, might be a week or two before they finish work. If just swapping rods, maybe a week?

EDIT: Forgot to say, "turbo tuning" / any internal work is gonna be a hefty price at any shop. At least $500 bux up to $1000 for labor. Then you have to figure in cost for whatever you are putting in.

I can swap a h22a motor into your car for $1800-2000, thats including, h22a motor, ecu and labor.

SLICK96 · 11-10-2002, 03:50 AM

Dang... I thought engine swaps cost about 500... wtf?

J

SLICK96 · 11-10-2002, 03:51 AM

For 1-2 G's, you bettah be dyno tuning my sh!t....

J

LudeDrew · 11-10-2002, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SLICK96
Dang... I thought engine swaps cost about 500... wtf?

J

As in, I PROVIDE the MOTOR, ECU and the LABOR . Total cost for everything $1800-2000

[SUB[EX] · 11-10-2002, 10:14 PM

haha, 1200$ for motor, 250$ ECU. 1550$
OIL/OIL FILTER, COOLANT, Transmission Fluid 25$-30)mobil1 65$
Plugs 10$-15$
Cap/Rotor 25$-30$
Plug Wires 20$-30$
say parts 1650$
2000$= 350$ install 29$ hourly for 12 hours
1800$= 150$ install 12.5$ hourly for 12 hours.

Hey LudeDrew if you want help i can drive down there. Just give me a few bucks to help. We could prolly do a swap in under 6 hours.

Or if he dont have time you guys can ask me.

SLICK96 · 11-11-2002, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by LudeDrew

As in, I PROVIDE the MOTOR, ECU and the LABOR . Total cost for everything $1800-2000

My bad, Drew. I was toasted drunk when I read your last post. Like I said before, I don't know if I'll do this right away, but it has always been an option in my mind. I'm deciding more against the turbo option by the day, even though I already have the parts (most of them). I mean, honestly, what's the longest a PO member boosted until his/her engine went boom?

J

Deepmist · 11-11-2002, 04:53 PM

im prolly gonna call you guys up this summer

LudeDrew · 11-11-2002, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by [SUB[EX]
haha, 1200$ for motor, 250$ ECU. 1550$
OIL/OIL FILTER, COOLANT, Transmission Fluid 25$-30)mobil1 65$
Plugs 10$-15$
Cap/Rotor 25$-30$
Plug Wires 20$-30$
say parts 1650$
2000$= 350$ install 29$ hourly for 12 hours
1800$= 150$ install 12.5$ hourly for 12 hours.

Hey LudeDrew if you want help i can drive down there. Just give me a few bucks to help. We could prolly do a swap in under 6 hours.

Or if he dont have time you guys an ask me.

Sure no prob :P

LudeDrew · 11-11-2002, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SLICK96

My bad, Drew. I was toasted drunk when I read your last post. Like I said before, I don't know if I'll do this right away, but it has always been an option in my mind. I'm deciding more against the turbo option by the day, even though I already have the parts (most of them). I mean, honestly, what's the longest a PO member boosted until his/her engine went boom?

J

I was boosting on my h23a for about 3 weeks until i blew my motor heh

LudeDrew · 11-11-2002, 10:35 PM

btw, for the swap price, thats with using your S/Si tranny, i dont include Vtec tranny. Figure in a around 1k if you want it.

pter · 11-12-2002, 09:58 AM

There are ways to legitimize it. Like doing the swap with certain paperwork, and getting a sticker from a smog ref that says it's 100% legal.

LudeDrew · 11-12-2002, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pter
There are ways to legitimize it. Like doing the swap with certain paperwork, and getting a sticker from a smog ref that says it's 100% legal.

Yes this is possible, but you are "supposed" to apply for the motor swap first through the State Smog Ref (not those small shops) and they will give you a certificate. What I mean by "supposed to" is that you might not have to apply, just bring it to them and as long as it passes its good, must have all emissions related equipment.