which motor is illegal??

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delsol88

Blinker Fluid Specialist
i know me and brutal came up with the answer in this forum but i cant seem to find it now so here it goes. Is it illegal to swap a newer than your car motor or and older than your car motor?? i can't quite remember.
 
it's illegal to swap an older setup into your newer car. ie, don't try to toss an obd0 setup into an obd1, 2, or higher car.
 
And to be additionally clear, that can vary by state and county, and possibly even city. Always check your local laws if you have any doubts, just to be safe.
 
so does it go by obd or actual year. i got a buddy who had a 94 gsr and is willing to pretty much gimme (someone re ended him and totaled the car). i know its obd1 but i have a 95 del sol. legal or not? and whos to say what is and isnt legal? would a cop really wanna check under my hood for an illegal motor or is it checked another way?
 
it goes by obd, as i understand it. though yblegal, rep - i didn't know there were possible loopholes!! :D

and ls-vtec: :blush: the only reason i know much of anything is because HS rocks. i probably read the thread he and brutal talked about this in...hehe.
 
so does it go by obd or actual year. i got a buddy who had a 94 gsr and is willing to pretty much gimme (someone re ended him and totaled the car). i know its obd1 but i have a 95 del sol. legal or not? and whos to say what is and isnt legal? would a cop really wanna check under my hood for an illegal motor or is it checked another way?

Are you telling us that your Del Sol isn't OBD1? :huh:
 
Yep, you should be ok as long as it's the same OBD setup. Backwards OBD conversions are often frowned upon. You won't pass inspections if you're running any OBD setup besides what your car's chassis was originally wired for.

If you're in a state that doesn't do inspections though, it doesn't really matter what you do. Yes, swapping an older motor or swapping down to OBD1 from OBD2 might technically be illegal, but a cop isn't going to be able to tell that you've done that from looking under your hood...
 
It's like having a hacked copy of windows. Your not going to get in trouble untill someone comes inside and looks at it, normally for some other reason (pedo, money laundering), where as in your case, an emissions test would warrent a look-see, or maybe if you get caught street racing. If you see what I'm saying.

It could very well be that your area only requires an emissions spec of equal to or greater than that of what the manufacturer offered for your area.

It could very well be that your area is concerned with not only that but the year of the motor.

Quite honestly, you need to hit up your city hall, or local court system and try and get some information pertaining directly to your area.

Off the top of my head, all I know is, my county will allow equal or greater than OBD swaps, nothing prior. The county next to mine will allow anything, and doesn't even test emissions, sniff or computer. And Illinois, I'm pretty sure from reading, they are allowed to swap anything in anything, but they have emissions tests still.

Again, please check your local laws. We're scattered across the country and world, and as you can see, they vary.
 
And Illinois, I'm pretty sure from reading, they are allowed to swap anything in anything, but they have emissions tests still.

Yeah it really depends on the local laws. I lived in Peoria for twenty years, never had to do jack shit as far as testing or inspections of any kind...
 
ok i have an obd1 del sol with a d16z6. my buddy has a 94 gsr which is also obd1. can i put his motor in my car legally?
 
i think the consensus was that you'd have to check the legality of any swap against your local laws.
 
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