ok i am blowing smoke and have lost 4th gear on my 90 da and i found a motor tranny ecu and wiring harness for 1295 and now i am trying to find out if it will smog??? i live in northern calli and i would really like to do the swap but need to know that i can get it to pass smog before i do if anyone could help thanks
justin
Im not sure if a usdm b-16 will pass and what you would to to make it do so. But as an owner of a b-16a1 powered da, Ill tell you I have to spend 200 bucks to have it smoged when the need arises. Also I have owned 3 da’s now and I will admit the b-16 is a little more fun but I kinda wish I would have oppted for the LS-VTEC set up. I miss the torque.
paradise eh? I used to live up there… but left back in 2000.
Anyway, in regard to your question. There are actually a handful of answers, so I’ll give you the main points and if you need clarification or more details about something just let me know.
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Assuming that the engine runs normal and is in good condition (and all your other emissions stuff works) then the b16a will pass the sniffer w/o a problem.
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A stock b16a swap will not be legal. It will not pass the visual inspection if the smog attendant is going by the book. However you may still pass the visual. Some smog places don’t care, others won’t notice a difference… it just depends on your luck and where you go. So technically its not legal, but it may still pass visual if you get lucky.
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If you want to make it 100% legal then you have to go to a BAR Smog Referee station. They check engine swaps to make sure they meet all the california laws and restrictions. If you pass, then you’ll get a sticker that tells smog shops that they can smog your car. Without this BAR sticker it is illegal for a smog shop to smog a car w/ an engine other than the original.
If you want to make the swap legal its gonna take some work. You’ll at least have to convert to obd1.
-Colin
why are you putting dashes in your engine codes? it makes things confusing. Oh, and by the way, there is no such thing as a “b16a1” (or if there is it was sent only to remote areas of the world…i.e. not US, canada, Japan, Australia…).
All jdm b16a’s are just that, “b16a” there is no number at the end. There were two US versions of the b series 1.6l vtec engine. The b16a2 (civic si) and the b16a3 (del sol).
I knew that 
dashes=bad habbit. im sorry for being a pain in the ass. ill stop now
no big deal… it just makes things confusing, especially for those not familiar w/ engine codes
ok thanks so doing a ls-vtec would be alot easyer to do?? i have 170000 on my LS and its getting a little tired and now i want to do somthing like a b16 or if i could find one pretty cheap i would like to do an LS-vtec i have not looked into how much it would be for an ls-vtec could anyone help or does anyone have one for sale
thanks
justin
a good reliable ls/vtec is not cheap. Easily double the cost of a b16a, depending on how you build it, and how far you want to take it.
And actually an ls/vtec is a worse idea in regard to smog. An ls/vtec cannot be made legal… true maybe 1 or two guys found a way to fool the ref, or maybe the ref was uneducated. But the fact is that according to california engine swap regulations an ls/vtec is illegal. You cannot mix/match parts like that. So the chances of getting a BAR sticker for an ls/vtec is slim to none. Where as its pretty easy w/ a b16a.
Any chance you know Nich? He hangs out w/ a kid named Rocky sometimes? Nich used to have a white eg, then a black Da, and now has a white crx.
yeah i know rocky i think that i have heard of the other kid did you go to paradise high?? i found a non obd b16 tranny and ecu for 1295$ and i have a ref just down at butte college so i think that i am going to go down and talk to him and see what he has to say
Yeah, i went to phs, graduated in 2000, then moved down to socal for college. been here ever since. Its funny how many DA’s are now in paradise. When I got mine there were 2 others in town. A kid named brian funk had a white gsr and someone else had a jasper green one (he didn’t really care for modifying it though…it was just his everyday car). I forget his name though. Then I got mine, a little while later my friend lincoln got one. they started poping up everywhere during my senior year, and after I left I heard they kept getting more popular, lol.
If you intend to get a BAR sticker you’re going to need to convert to obd1. An obd0 b16a swap just isn’t going to be legal. Basically you have to do the swap EXACTLY like it was a b16a2 out of a del sol. So you’ll need to run an obd1 distributor, all the del sol emissions stuff (some things on the intake manifold may differ), and you’ll need to run a p30 ecu (although only some referee’s actually check the ecu).
but yeah, it’d definitely be a good idea to talk to the local ref. I talked to one down here once, I was blown away at how smart he was. He knew his honda shit, there was no way anyone was gonna pull the wool over his eyes. He specifically told me he wouldn’t pass ls/vtecs or jdm engines (this was back when jdm engines were completely illegal no matter what).
yeah i went town to butte college today and he said that i would have to smog it as a del-sol now i just need to find out if the intake is the same and how hard it is going to be to make it obd1 i think that it is just the computer and i can order the wiring harness from non obd to obd1 he said it would need to have a heated o2 and that all the vac wires would have to be right on what is your name i know brian funk and all thos guys i might know you?? so now i am in search for a diagram of a del-sol and go down and match it up maybe have to get an intake from the junk yard or maybe someone has one laying around that they would like to get rid of if anyone could help on this topic.
thanks
justin
edited
converting to obd1 is pretty easy, I did it in my car. Check the Teg Tips / Articles Forum. I posted a write-up there on the basics of the conversion. If you have any questions about the conversion let me know and I’ll be more than happy to try and help.
hey justin, you got any pics of your car?
yeah i have one good one from the front i am still working on it but the front looks good i have not figured out how to up load pictures yet?? do you know if the delsol is a b16a1 or a2???
yo i got my ls/vtec smogged at a place up in paradise. i was worried when the guy asked me if it was the original b18, i hesitated a little, yeeaaah its stock…tehehe.
del sol is a b16a3
dohc ls/vtec: yeah, smogged and ref’d are completely different stories though. With a bit of luck you can smog almost anything.
i know their different, i’m just saying theres a place that will smog it up in paradise without a problem. Nothing under the table or anything, 34 bucks and your smogged.
do you by chance know the name of the place???
ok well all the jdm motors just say b16a so if i put all the stuff off of a delsol do you think that it will pass??
yes, it will work if you use all the del sol stuff. Here is how it works… a jdm motor can only be made legal if there was the same motor brought over to the US in a usdm car. So, in this case the jdm b16a is basically the same engine as the engine in the del sol. You need to make it exactly the same. You do that by using del sol electronics/diagnostics and emissions equiptment. Then the ref just acts like the engine is a b16a3 from a del sol. As long as everything jives, you’re in the clear.
Technically internals have to be the same as well, however often jdm internals are different. But this is ok since they don’t check which pistons you’re running, lol 