Anyone have experience with engine swaps in California?

I am about to get a free 1994 Nissan hard body. It’s in great condition. it has the old KA motor, and a manual transmission. I don’t believe that is a twin Cam motor though.

I was thinking about lifting it and putting a Toyota 2.7 I4 in it, or a 1998 KA24DE.

I had an idea of putting VQ in the truck from a 350z/G35, but after I looked into the regulations, it seems nearly impossible to legally have an engine swap in California.

i know most Nissan Hardbodies are lowered and used as street trucks, but I am not interested in that.

has anyone actually done a legal engine swap in Peoples republic of California?

 

I could be wrong but you’re probably safe on the ‘94, grandfathered in. You only have to keep that truck to ‘94 standards not today’s

 

You could just move to TX. We do whatever we want over here. Carry guns, drive loud trucks, and slap babies. Whatever you want

 

peoples republic of california????? I think i need to throw up

 

He spelled communist republic wrong

 

Sad thing is they are all fleeing the government they hate and bringing the same ideology to Austin

 

been dreaming about moving to Texas for years for political reasons. I can’t find a job out there.

 

So, this 1994 Nissan you're going to get... has it ever been registered in CA before? If so, there is a .0000000001% chance a DMV person will do a vehicle inspection, and a 0.00000000000000000000000001% chance they would have enough mechanical knowledge to be able to tell you swapped in a different engine. Hence, they will assume the vehicle is still OEM configuration, and will never know. As of at least 2016, when I moved back to Kalifornia from New York, the CA DMV only did vehicle inspections for vehicles that were never before registered in CA. I would not expect that to have changed in the last 4 years.....

 

Passing Smog will be your big hurtle. I’ve toyed with the idea of swapping-in a more modern drivetrain in my 3.0 Powered T100. From what I understand these are some of the requirements:
* Can’t swap-in an older engine then the model year of the vehicle
* All emissions equipment from the new engine must be installed and working.
* A passing Smog Check is required which meets the requirements for the year your new engine is. So if you swap a motor in from a ‘18 Taco to a ‘93 4Runner, your ‘93 now must meet the emissions requirements for an ‘18 Taco.
* The BAR must inspect, approve and assign a decal stating approval to the vehicle.

Honestly it’s a bit nutty since you’d think the State would want people to swap in more efficient and cleaner-running, modern engines but they don’t see it that way.

 

I had to have a vehicle inspection done recently just for bringing in an out of state vehicle from IA to CA. They did a pretty thorough job inspecting the vehicle and looked at the engine and everything. Like others have said though i think in your case it will be smog that will bring up a red flag unless you have all the supporting smog equipment as well.

 

All of the above is true. I live in CA and I have two motor swapped vehicles. And to not have to deal with the above bullshit, you just need a vehicle that is smog exempt. Unfortunately, your '94 hardbody is not exempt.

So my '70 bmw has an engine from a mid 80s bmw. My '67 Datsun has a jdm engine from the mid 90s.

I get to do what I want with these classic cars while giving a middle finger to CARB and DMV.

 

I’m with you; my ‘73 VW Thing has a swapped-in engine from an ‘88 Thunderbird, which even without emissions equipment likely runs cleaner then the air-cooled VW engine that car originally had.

 

.......and probably with like 2-3x more horsepower too.

 

For sure!

 

This^
I've swapped and bar a 92 civic with an 98 integra gsr motor before.
Biggest thing is to learn what are all the emissions equipment on the motor you are going to swap, all those must transfer over.

A clean swap is key. If the swap looks like crap the inspector is going to look harder.

When you go see the bar inspector, you are not allowed to see what they are doing, but I could hear my car running on dyno.