In California the rules are a little confusing but Frank is right. You
may not use an older engine in a swap. The tail pipe emissions do not
affect this. Even a very smog clean 84 engine may not be used in an 86
body. You must use the same year or newer engine as body and all of the
emissions related equipment must match the year of the engine. This
means that Vanagons will likely never be able to use the latest engines
as the interpretation of the rules is that all OBD II functions must
work along with all indicators that were used in the vehicle the newer
engine came in. This mean Check Engine lights and fault code display
panels including info related to the tranny codes must be installed in
the Vanagon. Since Vanagons do not have electronic speed sensors or
tranny sensors some of the codes would not be valid and therefore the
swap would be a NO GO unless these sensors were somehow added also.

One small exception to the engine/body year rule is if the swap engine
came from a 84 it could be put into a 85 body as long as the 84 engine
is identical to one was certified in 85. For example if an identical
Audi KX engine was sold in California from 1984-1987 in Audi4000S models
one from an 84 could be used in a Vanagon as new as 87 since the Audi KX
is the same for all of those years. I am using the KX as an example but
it may not be those years exactly.

Mark

T Berk wrote:
>
> Frank Grunthaner wrote:
>
> <snip>

> > NOTE: in CA, putting in any replacement engine from the same
> > year or later with original smog equipment is smog legal so long as the
> > engine was sold in CA.
>
> I have been operating under the (illusional?) idea that the later
> manufacture date leads the smog requierment; later engine uses it's smog
> stuff, later car can use early engine- as long as it meets the later
> car's emmesion specs. (Unlikely, but possible)
>
> >From the SMOG page on line:
>
> > Certification Standards
> >
> > Make sure the engine and emission control configuration on exhaust - controlled vehicles are
> > certified to the year of the vehicle or newer, and to the same or a more stringent new vehicle
> > certification standard.
>
> < http://smogcheck.ca.gov/smogweb/Geninfo/default.asp?RefPage=/Geninfo/Publications/Engine_Change_Guidelines-Jan_1994.htm>