Older motor than car.......

[bill-the-ba$tard]

Hi everyone. This is my first post on any forum ever, but not my certainly not my last. I have a purple (ugg) 93 Honda Civic Dx. So far, I have almost completely converted it over to an Ex, including the d16z6 and rear disc brakes. The person who owned my engine before me let it overheat pretty bad due to the thermosensor going out, so I've had to replace the head gasket twice. It keeps going out though for some reason, in fact it is blown now. I'm thinking I either have a warped block or I shouldn't have been too cheap to buy new head bolts. Or the block flexes when I rev the piss out of it. I did have the head resurfaced and pressure checked though, and it was good.

So anyway. I got a good deal on a B16a1. Yes, a first generation B16a from a JDM 89 Civic Si-R. $800 for the motor, many misc. mounts, a hydro tranny, a pr3 ecu and a p28 ecu, plus lots of other stuff. I am converting it to obd1 by having the p28 ecu reprogrammed by a friend of mine, and I bought a new obd1 distributor. The motor is about halfway in right now, as I am having quite a lot of trouble with the rear transmission mount lining up quite right, even though I do have the bracket from the B16 itself. That is not my question however......

I have always heard that due to emissions laws, it is illegal to put a motor in your car that is older than your car itself. Lukily, in my part of Washington, we don't have to go through emissions. I do fear, though, that we may start having to sooner than I would like. So, my question is: Which part of your motor has to be as new or newer than your car? All of it? Just the block? Just the head? The computer? I know it can't have anything to do with spark plugs or piston rings - they're sure as hell not going to check that! My plan right now is to run this motor for a while until emissions becomes a problem, or until I want more power. What I probably will end up doing is keeping the head, maybe with some different cams though, and attaching it to a built and balanced LS block for turbo. A block that is a 93 or newer.

Anybody know if I will be able to run the head if it is older than my car? Or the block? What in the hell do they look at anyway? If I kept the block and just got a newer head, would that work?

What a stupid law.

-John (bill the bastard is not my real name -- I just like it)

[Greenblurr93]

if they really want to get pissy, there is a number circled on you head somewhere that sats the year of production, and as far as the block goes. well, they can tell from the VIN...

[bill-the-ba$tard]

VIN on the block? Where is that located? I don't know what the VIN is on the car the motor originally came from. It is from Japan.

-John