KEN wrote:
> Ben, the other thing to think about is the Federal rule that, if you do an
> engine swap, that the engine come from a vehicle that is the same model year
> or newer than yours.

        We in California have this same regulation.

>  What
> I have heard (from folks who have inspected the conversion and from E-spec
> themselves) is that the motors they were using were Rabbit/Golf/Jetta blocks
> with an Audi 2.0l head on them that they put together.

        It was a Audi 2.0l (3E) block with a 1.8 digifant head
(so they could use pulsed injectors).

Benjamin Tan wrote:
> CARB does no follow Fed Guidelines on engine swaps. They only care that
> engine has the smog equipment for year of manufacture. They modified this
> further for replacement engines after a number of citizens complained that
> few VW's had original factory engines.

        California does require that the donor engine be from
the same model year or later. This may have been a 'recent'
change, but it's been in effect ever since I started looking
at putting a different engine in my van 3 years ago - and
was still in effect in November when I last called to verify
that one can do a gas to diesel swap. Did the new year bring
new laws that I missed?

>  There are millions of us VW owners in
> California. Thanks to all those voting enthusiasts, we can now use Mexican
> engines to (legally) power our VWs. The Fed or EPA requirements only become a
> concern when you are exporting the vehicle to a different state or country.

        I also have never heard of any pardon on Mexican engines?!
If that were the case, why don't we see Mexican type2s in dealer
showrooms? To get a car smogged, you need to have an engine
in it that is on record with the CARB. Registering an engine
with the CARB costs money (something like $5000 from when
I talked to them 3 years ago).

dave