California smog police are waiting...?

[ed armstrong]

Another thought on that subject.

There's so much rust on the block of my other Audi, an
85 Coupe, that you can barely read the numbers !


--- Kneale Brownson <knotnook at traverse.com> wrote:
> When you have that engine in the car with all the
> attendant plumbing and 
> wiring, how easy will it be to read those numbers? 
> Smear some grease on 
> them and see how legible they become.
> 
> 
> At 10:02 AM 08/15/2001 -0700, ed armstrong wrote:
> 
> >Hi gang,
> >
> >This post is for primarily California listers but
> >others feel free to chime in.
> >
> >As I am closing in on the completion of my turbo
> swap
> >in a 1988 90q some issues are concerning me with
> smog
> >laws. In my beautiful but increasingly legislated
> home
> >state of California there is a law that says one
> >cannot swap an earlier model year engine into any
> car
> >older than about ~1973. That is you cannot take a
> 1985
> >engine and swap it into a 1990 model year car.
> >
> >There in lies my diliema, as I bought a junkyard
> 5000
> >turbo MC engine from a 1987 model year. On the
> engine
> >itself is stamped "86" on the lower right
> >(non-manifold side) with  what looks like a
> production
> >serial number stamped near the the head (but on the
> >block).
> >
> >Does anyone have any experience as to how strict
> these
> >smog police are when they inspect an engine
> >conversion. Do they look at the stamped year date
> and
> >production numbers to see which model car the
> engine
> >was derived from ?? Does it make any difference to
> >them that the MC-1 engine was the same for the
> >1986-1989.5 production run ?? I'm actually toying
> with
> >the idea of changing some of the numbers to "make"
> it
> >an 1988 or 1989 engine. Doesn't look like its hard
> to
> >do with some subtle grinding and renumbering.
> >
> >Alternatively, all the smog equipment like O2
> sensor
> >and cat converter will be retained, so it may pass
> the
> >so-called visual part of the bi-annual smog
> inpection
> >if I get some bozo inspector. It will certainly
> pass
> >the actual smog test of pollutant measurements, I
> have
> >not doubt about that.
> >
> >My next smog check is in 20 months so I have some
> >time. But I'd like to address some these issues
> now.
> >Any thoughts on this ??
> >
> >  -ed
> >
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