bro, the search button is your friend. and NO SR20's are not legal in California. you can only swap an engine of the same chassis car. since the sr20 was never sold in the US and was made only in japan, it is not legal. besides you know you want to turbo a freshly built ka and have quick spool and torque. sr20's are rev happy monsters, but unless you plan on living on the limiter, going sideways 24/7 (on a track of course) sr20's are really not needed for street. as a matter of fact the ka is more street friendly due to the extra torque from the extra .4 liter of displacement. sure it doesnt rev to the moon, but if built right it doesnt need to. do some research, you will find the ka is plenty capable.

 

I'll answer for you before you get flamed. Short and simple answer is no, sr20 swap is not legal.

For an engine swap to be legal in Ca, the donor engine needs to be from the same class vehicle (i.e. no truck motors to cars), and needs to be swapped over with all original emission control equipment and sensors. Furthermore, donor engines have to follow an existing USDM engine setup. Finally, it is almost impossible to get an engine swap approved by the ref when converting fwd engines for rwd use and vice versa, since modification of the stock manifolds will be required.

For this reason a SR-20det setup would be illegal since this setup was never offered as a factory option here on any vehicle in the usa. It is theoretically possible to take a jdm motor and equip it with all the necessary smog emissions eqiupment to get it passed, however once you turbo charge it, it would become illegal, unless said turbo kit was approved by the C.A.R.B.

I'm in cali too. Your best options for smog legal power would probably be to do the VQ 35de swap, or if you like, you can do the LS1 swap. Both will require a dedicated amount of cash, however, both are legal options since both are factory offered rwd setups here in the usa.

Hope that helps, welcome to the forums, and next time try to make use of the search option, this question has already been asked countless times.

 

yes the SR20 is legal!

FWD one is...LOL

fuck SR

 

thanks guys that helps alot so i have a 1998 ka in my 1993 240sx and ive herd that the greddy turbo is legal but that in order to make that reliable you need to rebuild the ka, so exactly would i have to do to my ka so it dosent blow up with the turbo haha?

 

It won't blow up, its not a Honda for god sake. Nice comment on the 240 being "not much better" than the RSX. You are gay. Where do you live? If your in the Bay area I'll show you what a 240 can do... Thats like comparing a McDonalds to filet mignon. The 240 is 100 times the car the RSX could ever be. I burned an undercover cop in an RSX on the freeway with my STOCK 240SX. RSX's suck penis, they are glorified integras.



KAs are the shit. If its under 180,000 miles, don't worry about a rebuild, just boost it!

 

a motor thats not originally in the car is technically illegal. espically if its not produced in the states.

 

This is incorrect, at least so far as California law is concerned (and I'm pretty sure California law is the most strict) I've done a lot of research on this topic so please refer to my previous post.

The most common smog legal "power swap" is the LS1 swap, the LS1 being a Chevy motor.

Even motors produced in other countries ala jdm motors can be smog legal provided they have the same counterpart motor offered in cars here. To get such a motor installed legally, you'd simply need to pull all of the emissions control equipment and sensors from a usdm version and apply it to said foreign motor (again has to be the exact same motor). Finally you'd have to take your completed engine swap to a referee for final inspection and approval.

Unfortunately jdm motors aren't really viable smog legal option for nissan enthusiasts as Nissan offered different engine setups for the Japanese models. Honda enthusiasts however have some nice options in this area.

 

Greddy kit is NOT LEGAL

and if u have good compression across the board, u'd be fine

 

what turbo do you have on your ka? and if you get pulled over could you get away with it?

 

i dont have a turbo on my KA, and if u get ref'd u cant get away with ANYTHING but stock

 

^ +1

LS1, VQ, 2JZ

all are legal if u dont tamper with the smog shit

rule is motor has to be same year or newer than the chassis

 

YUP! You guys have your shit down. Same year or newer, same type vehicle (IE car engine in Car, or truck engine in truck according to DMV, although I have a friend with a 100% legal LS1 powered toyota 4x4).


Now what about the few skylines that were legally imported? If those cars were approved (and they were), wouldn't their engines be legal to swap? I'm very interested to find out.

 

I'm not 100% but I think swapped engines and gray market cars are totally different animals when it comes to getting them through all the red tape. But to answer your question, it seems to me that MOST of the grey market vehicles like skylines, S15's, and GT-R's normally get registered legally in states that are a bit more forgiving with auto regulations. Places like FL and TN come to mind... lol almost anything goes in some places.

I was also under the impression that any engine swap needed to also have the same or larger displacement compared to the original engine offered with the car. In addition to the new engine being offered in the US, in a similar drive train configuration, and having all the emissions BS.