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How to Make your LS-powered RX-7 SMOG legal

8 March, 2013 2

Photo courtesy of MotoIQ.com

By Zack Klapman

 

My favorite website, MotoIQ, has been detailing their LS-powered RX-7 build for many moons, and they’re almost done. The engine is in, it runs, it drives. “What’s left? Let’s go drifting!!” Slow down, Brian Spilner. See, they want to be able to drive this car on the street, legally. That means registration, which means smog. We’ve talked a little about these laws on the podcast, but our advice was based on this site, far from comprehensive. What we’d read is you can swap in a more modern engine, as long as it retained its stock emissions equipment, and was from the same class of car (sports car to sports car, sedan to sedan, etc. You can’t put a Veyron motor in a minivan.)

 

Overly-simplified is our name.

 

But MotoIQ is actually going through that process, and they’re experience pointed out a lot of unknowns. Discrepancies with the BAR referee, how valuable an EO sticker is, and (shocking) how misinformed government employees can be. If you’re thinking about swapping a motor, or are curious as to why these guys wasted hours, at multiple idiotic locations, only to have it all certified in a matter of minutes by one lenient smart technician, jump to their post.

 

Source: MotoIQ

 

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  • John Carter

    nice I hope to see some videos of this car doing things that are not very legal in the near future

  • Mike

    Not trying to promote criminal activity but in NJ OBD1 cars (95ish and older) will have no issues really passing. Even to do it legit you basically have a cleaner burning newer motor that passes normally in an OBD1 car. To pass it just needs to run cleaner than a stock rx7 would. I forget when they ended the rx7 in the USA but I don't see any issues getting this to pass.