I've got a question and hopefully somebody has the answer. I live in Texas, have a 39 Chevy coupe, and am putting a 04 GTO LS1 engine in it. Texas law gets a little weird here. The law says that on vehicles with an engine swap the year model of the car will be considered to be the year model of the engine or of the car (whichever is newest) and the car will be held to the emission standards of that year. The law also says that for reconstructed cars (and hot rods are listed in this category) the year model of the car will be considered to be that of the year of the build completion and the car will be held to emission standards of that year.

Is anybody here from Texas and had to deal with emission testing on their older car? I've been told that if I register the car as an antique (need to find original 39 plates for this) then it is exempt from all emission testing.

Something else, I can't run the factory exhaust manifolds on this engine. My frame is WAY to narrow for them to fit in. Originally I thought "no problem, I'll just put some block hugger headers on it." Well, I found out today that the car won't pass inspection because headers are not emission standard compliant on late model engines. So, anyone know if any of the LS1 exhaust manifolds tuck in real tight to the engine?

 

F body manifolds tuck in about as good as any, thats what I'm running on my 33 Ford, they fit with no real problem didn't cut the frame or anything and I would think a 39 Chevy would have more room. Sucks to hear about your emission problem, hope they don't start that here. Good luck.

 

Trailblazer SS are about the closest to the block. They are also available on any 5.3 Envoy XL or TB extended whatever.

TBSS



Here are the F-body, C5vette, Truck and GTO

 

Phil I think it depends on your inspector, cars older than 25 years are exempt and only require a safety inspection I would think that they wouldnt be such a jerk about it but theres no telling. May want to tell them its a 75 corvette engine? most insp arent that up on all that - I am installing a 04 z06 motor in my 69 firebird (if the bodyman ever decides to let me have it back!) and i dont think I'll have any problems.you may want to go and ask an actual inspector about that. mOh and headers shouldnt be a problem either - in CA they have to have a "CARB" exemption on them , dont believe it matters here if they pass the sniff test-I have seen cars w/o cats pass the dyno test

 

Are you sure about those emissions requirements? I've lived in N Texas my whole life and have never heard of the testing being that restrictive here.

 

From what I've seen on emissions in areas like that, the emissions status of the car is updated ONLY if the vehicle still needs to pass emissions on its own. For example, a '79 Camaro still needs to get sniffed in many areas - in a state like CA, a LS1 swap would update emissions specs to the year of the engine. However, since a '69 Camaro doesn't need to get smogged, it would not get updated and would continue with the no-smog status.

You're probably fine, I doubt you'll actually need to get the emissions spec of a 1939 vehicle up to any newer standard.

 

If anyone needs the name of the person who can clarify your engine swap details for the State of TX, PM me.

I'm sure that old cars/trucks will be fine.

Here's the reply he provided me for my swap:

"This modification can be done just as long as it is done professionally, meaning that the complete OBDII system from the 2003 Corvette-based drivetrain is installed into the 2000 S10 Blazer. Both of these vehicles are OBDII compliant, but the emissions control systems components will be different. In other words, you can't use the Powertrain Control Module (PCM) from the Blazer with the Corvette components, because then you are going to have problems. Catalytic converters for the Corvette will need to be installed.

The 2000 S10 Blazer came equipped with a V-6 engine and its PCM is designed to operate with this powertrain for the proper air/fuel mixture, etc. The complete wiring harness, PCM, etc, from the 2003 Corvette will need to be installed into the 2000 S10 Blazer and it sounds like you have that under control and know how to properly install the complete system, so you shouldn't have any problems. The S10 Fuel EVAP system should be OK to use with the Corvette OBDII system, but please double check on this.


When your newly modified vehicle comes to an inspection station for an OBDII emissions test, the vehicle will still be tested as a 2000 model and the
vehicle will be tested for proper Malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL) operation as well as the presence of any Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC's) and the readiness monitor systems will also be tested. Please make sure that your tuner checks to make sure that the 2003 Corvette OBDII system is operating properly in your 2000 S10 Blazer after installation and that the readiness monitors are set to "Ready" and that there are no stored DTC's.

So just make sure that your tuner verifies that your 2003 Corvette OBDII system is operating to specs after installation to avoid any driveability problems as well as to avoid any DTC's or readiness monitor problems. If your MIL is commanded ON with a stored DTC, your vehicle will FAIL the OBDII test or if there are more than 2 readiness monitors set to "NOT READY", your vehicle will FAIL the OBDII test.

The readiness monitors are indicators used to find out if emissions components have been evaluated. In other words, if all readiness monitors are set to "Ready", then the emissions components have been tested by the OBDII system. If any of the readiness monitors are set to "Not Ready", like the EVAP & EGR system for example, then those emissions components have not been tested yet by the OBDII system. If a readiness monitor runs to completion (Ready) and if a problem is detected during the evaluation, then a DTC will be stored in the PCM and the MIL will illuminate.

Disconnecting the battery or clearing DTC's with a scan tool will reset all the readiness monitors back to "Not Ready" and the only way to reset all the readiness monitors back to "Ready" is to drive the vehicle through a drive cycle, which is basically a combination of city/highway driving at the required speeds for a specified amount of time. Usually, normal driving habits for about 30 minutes to an hour will reset the readiness monitors back to "Ready", but some vehicles require an exact drive cycle and it can be very time consuming.

I just wanted you to be aware of all the facts when repairing or replacing an OBDII system, because if an OBDII system is not operating properly, then your vehicle will be exceeding the emissions standards and it could possibly fail the OBDII emissions test.

I hope that I have answered your questions completely and please contact me if you need any further assistance.

 

Here's where I got the info about the year model of car vs year model of engine: http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/vi/Misc/faq/engine.html According to that site: I was told by the owner of a muffler shop (who is one of my dad's car buddies) that the car would be required to run catalytic converters at least. He later called us to say we might have to do more than the cats because a customer of his who had a hot rod had just come back to his shop after getting a complete exhaust system (and was running aftermarket headers) and failed inspection because of the headers. He went to several inspection shops and they all failed him because of the headers saying they were not emission-standard-compliant for the year model LS1 engine he had ('06).

Thanks for the PM Phil, I'll shoot an email off to that guy.

 

Their description isn't extremely detailed and I bet Joe Blow the 18yr old emissions tester at your local Iffy Lube will have no clue what to do when you go in. What classifies a car as reconstructed or rebuilt anyways? I always go in and don't offer any information unless asked. They won't know what was originally in a 1939 Chevy anyways and will probably just follow the procedures they usually go through for every other non OBDII car.

 

If it is titled as a 1939 then you can rester it as an antique, they will issue you antique plates and you do not need an inspection

 

You have a point there, but as an antique you are restricted to driving the car only to car shows or to repair shops. This car will be my almost daily driver when it's finished. It will get WAY better gas mileage than my truck does.

I'm probably making a bigger deal about all of this than I should, but I don't want to get in trouble down the road.

 

A couple of things, register the vehicle as a 39 and not as an antique, do not retitle the vehicle as a reconstructed vehicle should resolve your issue. Reconstructed vehicles here are vehicles that you want to retitle in other words if I was to build a bike from ground up that had no title to begin with and I was building a basically a whole new bike, (frame with no title, has a bill of orgin like most after market frames and engine cases, transmissions) The same may apply to a street rod kit cars with the body never ever recieving a government authorized Vin number like fords, chevys, etc.

In many states most regulations about antique plates did the same as Texas in that the car could only be used for car shows or restricted milage have now changed the law to basically let you drive it as a daily driver.

Your frame is the same frame I believe used in my 48, I am running a set Kooks headers for the 2000-2002 fbody, the drivers side on my setup was about a match book away from the frame depending on how you set your engine up and what front suspension package you are using to route your stearing. Another member (Popeye) has a 47 and is using the 5.3 and is using some stock manifolds on his, you may want to send him a PM on his manifold choice and what issues he has encountered. In the link below is pics of my progress and he has posted in there to picks of his build progress and contact info.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversions-swaps/777355-ls1-48-chevy-coupe.html

 

That's kinda what I thought but wasn't sure. I know "kit cars" count as reconstructed vehicles.

Our frames do look a lot alike. I know Chevy used the same frame for a few different year models (mine is from a 38 sedan). You're not kidding about being a matchbook away from the frame. That's close! Those headers look really good on there though.

 

I don't live in Texas. But, here in Cook County Ill. emissions are very strict. I would NOT title your 39 as a rebuild or reconstructed. Title it as a regular old 39. Our antique plates are also only for parades and short drives, neither I nor any of my buddies have ever been stopped for driving with antique plates. This is the Greatest Nation on the planet---Nonetheless---Give them the least amount of info as possible!!!

 

So here's the official word from a representative of the Inspection Office of the State of Texas

Woohoo!