I love dealing with a beaurocracy

[JeepSJ]

In my dealings with the Washington State Department of Ecology and my little engine swap project, I have received lots of conflicting information about what is legal and what is not. Well, I finally go in touch with their "diesel expert". I had been trying to contact this guy for the past month and he finally called me on Monday.

He confirmed that a diesel swap is legal only if a diesel was an option in that vehicle. OK, fine. There is a gasser Burb that I have my eye on. So I ask him about emissions testing, since the test station told me that if I showed up in diesel powered vehicle and their system listed it as gas, they would fail me. I asked if I needed some type of paperwork from DOE stating that this was a legal swap.

"No. You just need to go to your local licensing agent and reclassify the vehicle as a diesel."

OK, do I need anything from DOE when I do that?

"No, you just go down there and pay the fee."

So, what you are telling me is that I can reclassify a vehicle, any vehicle, as a diesel, and that when I show up at the emissions test station they will test the vehicle as a diesel? And I can do this no matter if the vehicle had a diesel offered as an option?

After about a 15 second delay - "Yes."

Next call was to Dept of Licensing. I asked about reclassifying a vehicle from gas to diesel.

"Just go to your local agent. It is a $6 fee."

Do I need any paperwork from DOE regarding the engine change, or and documentation showing that a diesel was an option in that vehicle?

"Nope."

Final call was to the contractor that runs the emission test stations. If I show up in a vehicle that has a diesel, and the registration shows that it is a diesel, do you do any check to see if a diesel was really available in that vehicle?

"Why would we? If the registration says diesel, and the engine is a diesel, we test it as a diesel. If it was not available with a diesel, you wouldn't be able to register it as a diesel."

Amazing. Tomorrow I take the first step - I'll be visiting my local license agent to reclassify.

Gotta love State agencies that don't communicate.

[britannic]

Here in the R.O.K. we have a saying: if it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck and looks like a duck - it must be a duck :D . So there are guys who are into rockcrawling, bolting 1945 Dodge bodies on Toyota pickup chassis and drivetrains, using the 1945 paperwork to register their vehicle ownership and never needing to visit a smog station again (for the near future at least).

[ 03-17-2004, 04:19 PM: Message edited by: britannic ]

[gavio]

I have heard from a couple different folks here in the golden state who did the same thing.

Basically, they just take the vehicle with new engine attached to a smog referee, who then looks under the hood (or sniffs the tailpipe or listens to it or some such), confirms that it is a functioning diesel engine, then reclassifies it.

I haven't done it, but thas what I heard.

Good luck up there.

[Craig M]

What you see more often in California is a Gas engine installed in a diesel registered vehicle. There is currently no inspection for diesel vehicles. An owner of a 88 diesel pickup can install the hottest 454 big block, with no emisions or anything smog related installed on the engine and never have to wory about an emisions test.

[britannic]

Until the day that 454 driver in a former diesel gets pulled over by the CHP and they run his or her license plate and VIN.

FYI - although it's not a diesel, this is a cautionary tale: My friend's son got pulled over in his Honda CRX for speeding (107mph in a 55mph federal mountain road). The officer asked to look under the hood (the driver didn't know he could have insisted on a search warrant) and the driver complied. Once the officer saw all of the non-CARB performance mods and turbo, he wrote up a very expensive ticket, that's still collecting more fines for our young friend as he works through the various penalties and referees to get back to being smog legal.

Moral: if you build a sleeper, exercise great discretion on how you use it :D ...

[JeepSJ]

Well, I just got back from my local licensing agent and now officially have a title for a diesel powered Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Probably the only "documented" one in existence. Had a bit of a scare though - it is not currently regsitered, and the lady told me that she could not change the designation to diesel unless the registration was current. I can't register it until I pass emissions, and I can't pass emissions until it gets reclassed. I explained that to her and she thought about it for a minute and ran it through for me.

Now I just need to get some time to actually get the engine IN.

[G. Gearloose]

congrats, I had often pondered the combo you propose, sounds exciting. good luck

[84 Convert]

RIGHT ON !!! You gotta love it! Sounds like this may be a successful venture afterall. Interesting how all that works, I'll have to store that somewhere in my memory bank for later use.
Hope you have better luck coming up withextra time than I do.

Gregg

[trbankii]

How is this project going? Came across this post and was searching to see if there were any updates but could not find anything.

[More Power]

Here in MT, you need to have the registration changed to reflect the fuel type, if a swap was made. I needed to do that for Lil Red when I licensed it. :D

I haven't seen the MT code, but the folks at the local DMV indicated that it was required by law.

MP