What to fill my engine bay with that meets CA smog?

[blocke]

Yet another "what swap should I do thread", but ive searched and havent come up with much that applies to my situation.
My m20 runs well enough now, but eventually its gonna need replacement, rebuild, or otherwise. I'd like to get planning now, set up a budget and start collecting parts.
The kicker is I live in California, home of the uber tight smog regulations.
Whatever is done to my car either needs to pass smog every 2 years, or be easily reversable in a weekend. My end goals will be reliability, and an increase in power over the stock M20. Figure a budget of $4-5k all said and done.

Current options im considering:
1. Rebuild the stock M20, perhaps go NA stroker, cams, and tuning.-
Going this route seems to be the closest to compliance with smog regulations, at least on a visual basis as most work is internal. It also wont require any drivetrain modifications. But will that much internal work still allow me to pass emissions testing?

2. M50/S50 swap
I have heard of a member or two getting their m50/s50 swaps BAR approved in CA. If this is the route I go, what other than the longblock itself should I plan on obtaining/installing to make the swap pass?

3. Rebuild M20 and go turbo setup.
This will most likely net the most HP, but then I have to remove turbo, exhaust etc. every 2 years to pass. And will the car run well enough with all that removed in order to pass smog?

Any members/shops with experience in CA than can offer some direction?

[Jean]

Whatever engine you pick, it needs to have ALL of it's emission components present. The exhaust down to the CAT needs to be exactly how it came from the factory on the car the engine was used in. It's not really a big deal to pass BAR, just make sure it all looks clean and have a factory airbox, good CA legal cat and do your homework.

[rede30]

I have passed my s50 as a stock m20 twice now. I have stock e36 m3 midpipes.

[5KWattson]

im guna throw my stock m20 cats back on my m50 and go through emissions this week...ill report back with the results.

[Uber E30]

That wont work, they are looking for the e36 dual cat setup, evap canister specific to your engine, stock headers, stock airbox/maf or a carb approved intake, and a working CEL.

[r-mracing]

Basically in California they require that the motor is of the same model year of the vehicle or newer with ALL WORKING factory emissions provisions. Unfortunately most people in CA usually end up having to go the "hey buddy, here's $100" route..

Trying to pass with a stroker motor will surely pass visual inspection, but I doubt it will pass the emissions. In my opinion, its not worth all the hassle when you can find 1000 dollar deals on e30's. just have two. A track car with no plates and all the mods, and a DD. And though I do not condone it at all, you could always swap your plate around if you needed to simply drive the track car to the track or whatnot.

[evangreen]

That wont work, they are looking for the e36 dual cat setup, evap canister specific to your engine, stock headers, stock airbox/maf or a carb approved intake, and a working CEL.

Not true.
Your probably going to be running obd1, and will most likely be classified as a 95 3.0 motor. Mine was certified with obd2 headers and the e30 cat and mid section, with a single o2 sensor at the x-pipe.

Ive heard of people getting shit with the ref for using obd2 headers, might want to wait to switch to them till after the ref is through with it

[Wh33lhop]

As far as the BAR certification goes, it really depends. Some have had no problems with a mildly modded motor, some have had the book thrown at them with a stock motor that didn't fully comply with all of CARB's bullshit regulations. Make sure to use a CARB-legal air filter, sometimes they overlook it sometimes they don't.

[screwbiedoo15]

The PO of my E30 got the BAR certification for the NV M50 in my car. It has the cats from the car the engine came out of but he just put a K&N intake on there. To get that to pass the visual inspection he took a K&N certification from another kit and just put that on the strut tower in the engine bay.

My feeling would be that your best bet would be to do a 24V swap and get it approved by a referee. I wouldn't want to have to deal with installing/ uninstalling a turbo kit every two years. And as others have mentioned I doubt a stroked m20 would pass the sniffer.

[884door]

A stroked m20 would have absolutely no problem passing the sniffer as long as the air/fuel ratio is right and it has a functioning cat.

[gregslow318i]

A stroked m20 would have absolutely no problem passing the sniffer as long as the air/fuel ratio is right and it has a functioning cat.

well if you think about any motor comb that is tune correctly should pass smog no problem, unless you have supper loopy cam that needs a tone of fuel just to idle, hell my m60 was cleaner than the stock m20 and pass wil flying colors

[Uber E30]

Not true.
Your probably going to be running obd1, and will most likely be classified as a 95 3.0 motor. Mine was certified with obd2 headers and the e30 cat and mid section, with a single o2 sensor at the x-pipe.

Ive heard of people getting shit with the ref for using obd2 headers, might want to wait to switch to them till after the ref is through with it

Well you got lucky, by the books, what i said is what you need.

[evangreen]

not if your smoging your car as an obd1, which most are....
by the books you would need the cats from an obd1 car
the dual cats are for obd2 cars

[Uber E30]

Uh, no 6 cyl e36s all had dual cats.

[MaloventEvil]

is it possible to smog an OBD2 s52 as an OBD1 car? will they even notice?