Jay

iTrader: (3)

IMO : Swappin engine is illegal.... no matter what you drive !!! Honda/Acura case, I don't know... you have to take it to the court and plead before the judge. Chance of letting you go ? Very slim !!!

Nevertheless, what's the %% of getting rolled on your Lexus and ask to pop the hood ?? very very LITTLE !!!! Unless you do some stupid things like Drift and doin donuts right front of po's.

One incident : I broke my hood latch while I was driving my silver GS, so i stopped and looked for it in Irvine. 4 cops came and helped me to find that latch for 45 minutes. Very helpful and told me have a good night afterward !!! NOW, if I have a HONDA crx with T88 turbo, will I get the same treatment ??? Hmm......

Even if you have T88 running 700+ hp, all up to how you treat it and be aware of surroundings, I think you'll be fine.

Swap engine ?? GO FOR IT !!! enjoy now... worry about legal stuff later !!! That's what lawyers for !!

SC with 1JZ T51R with 5 speed maual and LSD ...droooooolin !! You're set for Irwindale event !!

Good luck to you
JAY

Minuet

Jay,

I totally agree with you. But how does one get his registration renewed if it does not pass smog? I think I’ve seen your engine (very impressive). I’ll bet you don’t put the stock twins on every year for smog checks. I don’t mind driving around with an illegal setup but I still have to register it and thus smog it.

(I'm using smog as a verb, good grief)

Luv Da Lex

from what i know about swapping is that

1.engine must be USDM and same year or newer than the chassis
2.must have all smog equipment
3.engine and car must be in the same manufacture

sc300 and gs300 should be fine if you can find an USDM motor. i've seen a 7m-gte swap into a cressida with BAR sticker. stock cressida has 7m-ge, stock sc3 and gs3 has 2jz-ge. pretty much same engine except for the turbo. even if you can find a usdm 2jz most of them are probably ob1 motor usually 93 or 94 motors, you cant put that in anything higher than a 95 sc or gs. so my advice if you're looking to do a swap best year to get for sc is 92 or 93.

or you can just wait til the car is 30 years old then do the swap. one mistake people that has the old school cars make is that even if you have like an 72 240z with an sr20. its still illegal because the engine never was produced in the US. another mistake is that people that put in like a LS1 in teh 240z that runs straight pipe. all the smog equipment that was on the car the engine was in must go with the engine to the new car.

my 510 im building next year is going to have an sr20det in it. if i get pulled over and get hood popped im pretty screwed too but chances are it wont be a big deal since its a 71.

for people that think they can register it in another state and then bring it back. you still have to go through ref inspection at the DMV or CHP office. but the chances are that people at the DMV wont know jack about engine or anything, theyre just checking to make sure the VIN matches and stuff like that. I hear that arizona is one of the easiest state to register RHD and swapped cars. even then i still talk to people that cant register their RHD in california. so i guess its just shoot and miss with the ref.

soardrft

iTrader: (8)

hey jay i wasn't drifting and i got my hood popped. see i was at mount wilson driving (dumb idea) over the speed limit when a bike cop passes me the opposite way. now let me explain at this point i am trying to grip the road at very high speeds. so a few minutes later when he found a place to turn around he catches me (now let me explain after i saw him i slowed down). he tells me i was speeding. in my mind i am like duh, but i tuned into a scared luxury car owner and replied not me. so this battle went on for about 2 min or so until he told me do i want to see my speed. at this point i am ready to shhhh my pants. its a long walk back to pasadena from wilson if he impounded the car. so i get out and tell the cop i would never speed in this car. its a luxury car. so i walk around and check the speed. he got me at 75mph in a 35. then like i said as a scared luxury car owner i told him no way there are too many rocks on the road to be going that fast. i also apologized (remember kiss aaa$$). well long story short after he showed me he said pop the hood and i did. i told him it was stock. he deemed it stock and left without giving me a ticket. lucky for me i was stock. moral to the story if you are going illegal don't do anything dumb. lesson learned.

GoldGS3

iTrader: (1)

I just read a modification magazine, and one of the article said that USDM Supra ran on 2JZ-GTE engine. Thus, swapping Supra TT engine into a 1st generatioin Lex GS 300 is LEGAL and it is hook-and-play transplant.

any input?

dough boi

Dood, did you have the nur-spec on? I got my hood poped in Ventura County while doing 78 in a 65, mind you, traffic in the fast lane was going ~85. I was being passed by a truck as the cop lit me up. I was heading up to So;vang to go to court for a 98 in a 55 (long story, in short, 2 lane highway downshifted to 3rd in my RX-7 to pass cars in front) Asked me to pop my hood, which I thought was unfair (bald asian kid in a loud lexus) seeing as that the rest of my car looks pretty much stock. So I asked him why he wants me to pop my hood and so on so forth, and then he told me his probable cause is that I was refusing so he thought I was hiding something, so I poped the hood to my stock EVERYTHING including airbox. Still gave me the ticket

Anyhow, I think that if its a decent car, meaning not a Civic, Corolla, Cavalier or so on, and I hate saying this, but if you are a minority. Maybe I'm wrong for making that assumption, but from what I have experienced, that's how it is around here. My buddy went by a cop at WOT in my car (with the old exhaust) and the cop didnt slow down or even attempt to make a U-turn. My cousin has a 330ci with an AC Schnitzer exhaust (pretty damn loud), and he got pulled over and his hood poped too. All I'm saying is, cops are not stupid enough to think just because its a Luxury car, or a higher end car that it isn't modded. But then again, I can understand Jay's situation, I would say a grown man has less of a chance of getting his hood poped, than say, me, a 19 year old, or even my cousin I just mentioned, he's 23 still got his hood poped what I mean by this is, who you are and your appearance is a factor in what happens after you get pulled over. I know plenty of rotary guys 35+ with bridgeported rotaries, running 3.5in turbo-back exhausts who never get pulled over, or hood's popped. Not doing anything dumb would help, but look at what happened to me, driving slower than the majortiy of traffic and I still got pulled over and hood popped, cruise control a hair under 80, TO MAKE SURE I DIDN'T GET PULLED OVER, come on now, I was driving to court to serve a court order for a previous ticket, would I really be speeding TO COURT????

-Minh

guillermo

iTrader: (1)

what part of ventura county were you in

Jay

iTrader: (3)

Hmm... motor is LEGAL as "USDM" but off of Supra. DMV classification listed Lexus GS300 with 2JZ-GE motor (Non turbo). Your defense is that the fact motors is legal USDM, thus you can use it on your GS300 ??? well, not bad way to defend at the court !!

J

ummagawd

iTrader: (1)

well... i can't offer much of an explanation... but after a discussion with an ex-ref station owner...

there is no such thing as a legal swap for the 2jzgte in california