Triumph Sports Cars

Does anyone know if there are any problems in registering / legally driving a converted car in California? I currently live in Europe but I'll be going home at some point and California is a possible destination. Anyone have any knowledge / experience on this? I'm thinking about a Spitfire with a Buick 215, if that makes a difference.
Thanks
Mogans

It would help if the car is older than the year 1975. You will not need to smog the vehicle. This is why mine is a 1974. It will help if the engine swap year is newer than the car. Might have to go through an inspection.

You can do some reading on this subject on this site.[www.dmv.ca.gov]

Thanks for the reply, should have mentioned it's a 1978. I'll take a look at your link but if anyone has any direct experience that would give additional insight that would be great.

If it is a 1978 Spitfire, you will need to smog the vehicle. The engine will need to be newer than 1978 if you swap. The year of engine that you may swap in will need all the smog equipment for that year of engine. The car will need to pass with a referee smog station. It's kind of a pain, have seen several people speed alot of cash doing their swaps, and then have quit a few problems getting them to pass. It has been said go to a smog station on the outskirts of a big town or in the smaller county, with less problems. California has the most stricked rules for smog & swap. Also make sure you have the transmission that came with the engine or the same year. Have seen people have that problem to.

Let's say you have a 1996 Nissan 240sx, you want to install a 2000 ls1 chevy engine. You will need front and back 02 sensors, catlitic converters on both sides, charcoal canaster, working mil light,transmission that came with the engine, and all the sensors that came with that engine. No engine light code can show up on the test. This was just to give you an idea.

Good luck in California!

Here is a person that has a problem in California, not passing the car off that doesn't have the stock air box.

Here is his link in a forum....[www.ls1tech.com]. I see this all the time in this site forum.


If something is a after market part, it needs to be certified for california, and have the certified sticker on the part. So when they smog the vehicle, they have to check with their list of certified numbers for that part, so if it doesn't show up on the list, you will need to call the company for that part, to see if there is an updated number. Lets say there is a number update. You need to take photo's of that part on the vehicle, send them to that manufacture, so they can issue a new number. If there is no new number, you will need to take it off. It is such a pain here!
These parts cost alot more here because manufactures have to pay big money to get that part certified for California, so they pass that cost on to the consumer.

Again do your research before you do a swap! In California. I almost want to move out of California because all of this and other stuff.

My wife and I were thinking of getting a small house in Nevada and register all our vehicles in Nevada to get around all this mess here.

Here is another post in the same forum talking about how big of a cam you can install to pass smog.
[www.ls1tech.com]

Some reading material here...[www.autorepair.ca.gov]
[www.ehow.com] <<< Hmm that photo looks like a TR4 on this page!

Scary, I'm researching and finding out that my 1974 even tho it does not need to go through smog, it still needs all the smog parts that came with my 2002 engine. I'm not a happy camper. I may need to install all that craX back on.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2011 06:36PM by 74ls1tr6.

Here in CA, we "used" to have, for 25+ yr. old vehicles, the potential of historical vehicle status, ie. exempt from smog checks and not to be used for daily tranportation,(restricted use).Is this still valid ? roverman.

Art,

I think that still can be done! You need to register or get an historical status for your vehicle. You will need to get your form in January 1st when they only allow so many of them per year that they will issue out. In other words almost a camp out at the door I hear.

Jus' spoke to AAA, insurance not booze reform, they said 75'- no smog.

Is it fixed at 1975 for no smog test in CA, or is it the age of the car? In other words, three years from now will the rule still be 1975 or will it be 1978?

Fixed at 1975. Old cars are a bad idea, to our elected officials.

You can thank Gov. Arnold S. for signing the bill that killed the 30 year rolling smog exemption in CA. Jay Leno lobbied unsuccessfully for him not to sign it. Problem is that a lot of this CARB crap gets adopted by other states.

Glad mine's a '71. (with a '67 engine) The other MG is a '74 so it may be OK too if they ever californicate KY. But then again, before I'm done with that one it may go electric.... or *something* (Tesla had a car that ran on aether).

JB

"@#$%&"

We can't say crap (c-r-a-p) on here?

"(Telsa had a car that ran on aether)", I heer it was a reel "sleeper".

Just for Carl, I've updated the censored word list so that the word "crap" will now appear without obfuscation. ("Obfuscation"? Almost sounds like a dirty word itself...)

Thanks, Curtis. I was trying to keep it mostly clean.

Not ether, aether. You know, zero point energy? Now that's what I want.

JB

Yeah I have it, at the end of most work daze, lol.

I know it sounds like witches brew to most of you but I've been looking into it. Turns out our education system failed us yet again. The zero point field was recognized and the name coined in the 30's. May be weird science but it is now accepted by the informed mainstream physicists. But, since it seems to run at right angles to regular electricity (or something) conventional wired devices can't detect it. In spite of that it contains enormous energy, which makes us a little like the bird on the power line. What use has a bird with electricity? Numerous tests and anomalies show it does exist, which also simplifies and unifies existing physics theory. In fact, even Einstein knew about it.

OK, good enough for me, how do you use the stuff?

JB

mobius your ass to the next diminsion out of California