California smog-legal Turbo?

[E30 Cabrio]

I have a low-mileage 325ic and would like to add a turbo and run about 5-8 psi. of boost.

Does anyone make a smog-legal turbo kit for California?

No luck finding any, so was wondering if anyone here could help.

Thanks.

[ptownTSI]

the only way it can be smog legal would be if a kit is out there with an E.O. from the CARB. otherwise you would have to do all the work yourself to make it legal. i.e. this means putting the turbo on the car and paying a shop to completely analyze all the emissions. it is doable, look at RennTech, Brabus, Lingenfelter, they do essentially the same thing you are talking about. I work for the CARB as a student assistant right now so i know a little bit about what i'm talking about.

call them (BAR) and ask what you can do. there is so much he said she said online.

I do know though that you could put a complete turbo motor from a newer model year than your car in it with no problems.

I personally know there is a ford ranger running around sacramento with a turbo thunderbird motor in it from 1987.

the catch is that the motor has to be newer than the car it is going in.

[george graves]

the catch is that the motor has to be newer than the car it is going in.

Do you know this for a fact? I thought the deal was that the car had to pass emissions of what ever was newer, the car or the motor.

- drop older motor into newer car, you are smogged as the newer car
- drop a newer motor into an older car, you car smogged as the newer motor

Has this changed?

[Invisible_Saddle]

you must use a newer motor that the car it is fitted to. All smog/emissions equipment should be present when the car is being overlooked by BAR/CARB. I did this when my friend legalized his B18C5 in his civic.

We were also required to have the documents regarding the vehicle the engine and tranny were sourced from (theft check and the lot).

What we learned is that apparent honda are 'clean' motors. Being that we could possibly have run a test pipe and the car would have met emissions (possibly by a slight amount, and using a few other items in the fuel tank)