Kos-motate139
12-21-2006, 06:13 PM
I've just finished the process of getting my car smogged here in California, for the first time with the new engine under Smog Check II, including all the inspections, emissions, and government BS. I thought it would be interesting to cover the whole process from beginning (5/06) to end (12/06), with all the (hopefully not too humorous) deviations such a process is sure to endure.
The car:
As per the sig pic, it isn't fooling anyone that it's a daily driver. The interior is stripped leaving most of the dash there, and a very nice 8 point TC Designs cage takes its place. It's quite low, hot inside, and on the freeway it easily pushes 90db, probably louder on the inside than the outside. The graphics and stickers have just about every kid out there trying to race me, even a dusty old pickup truck full of garden equipment came zooming up behind me once while I was waiting at a light. He hit the right turn lane, jammed on the gas and did a credible drift if not losing part of his load and careening into traffic as I sat there and watched. As a result of that and the low gearing (4000 rpm at 80 in 5th), I usually end up driving it granny style on the street just to avoid any trouble.
The swap:
I build the car primarily to be competitive with USTCC regulations which, in a nutshell, specify all BMW parts, computer, and a minimum weight relating to the displacement of the engine. We sized it to give a weight of 2725 with driver, which was close to the car's weight anyhow, so that was the least expensive option to build a somewhat competitive car. At its finish, the swap included a borrowed stock 325 airbox, a e36 center section with cats, a Bosch 413 ecu tuned by DSR, a custom midas cherry-bomb enabled muffler and a very nice set of headers I happened to get for a song and a dance. The whole thing put down about 200hp / 185tq to the wheels running on the rich side, which isn't all the power it could deliver, but it was safe until I could install more gauges, oil temp, oil pressure, EGT, etc.
So, nearly all stock parts that say 'BMW' on them, emissions equipment in place and my DMV printout bearing the works "TEST ONLY STATION" in hand, I made my first stop at a smog check station.
Step One:
This particular smog check station was recommended by my mechanic that helped with the swap. My mechanic works on BMWs and Porsches, and it appears one of the few cars that's more difficult to get to pass smog than BMW 4 or 12 cylinder cars are mid 80s 911s. "Go to this guy, he'll set you up!", my mechanic said. Half hoping I could take care of everything right then and there, I cruised in mid-morning with the car nice and warm to be sure it didn't sit around while other people were getting checked.
Station Guy took a look at me and my car and started asking up front about the cats, the emissions equipment, the headers, the airbox, serial numbers on the ECU, etc, etc, and within about 3 minutes of driving up, I realized this fellow wasn't going to miss a single thing. Luckily, nobody else was there, and it looked like I would get to go right away.
But just as he got ready to test my car, another Porsche mechanic drove up in a nice early 80s 911SC, waved frantically to the guy and proceeded right into the bay without a stop. The fire drill started as Station Guy ran over, yanked the testing equipment off the wall and like a practiced ER surgeon plugged various sensors and probes in getting the smog readings from the car in just a few minutes.
Once that car was out of the way, he brought my car in to have a look. He started by noting the piece of dryer hose I had attached to front of the stock airbox (home-depot style CAI) and said that would cause the car to fail. Ignoring my offers to remove it on the spot, he continued examining the intake and exhaust system, looking somewhat confused. I thought to offer some help regarding the newly installed engine but I was still a little miffed about 911SC guy jumping in front of me to test, so I thought I’d just let him figure it out for himself.
Finally after consulting some documentation and making a few phone calls Station Guy walked over to me and said, "This engine doesn't belong in this car!"
"No," I admitted, "Not really, but it's all from parts of the same year..." Rolling his eyes, he started into the process I'd have to go through, getting it certified at an official referee station, getting an exemption sticker for the engine, and going on from there. Sure, things I figured I’d probably have to do, but Station Guy did actually have some good advice about the process, such as which referee stations were less strict, and what they would look for.
Finally, to test the smog output he finally hooked it up to the dyno. The car ran relatively cleanly, but was about 200ppm too high on NOx at 35mph. Not that bad, actually, probably cleaner than most vehicles that saw 3000 highway miles a year, but I wasn’t going to pass smog that day.
The list of changes he recommended were:
* be sure the car had a stock computer (he didn’t look at it)
* find stock headers or get a CARB exemption sticker for them from the manufacturer
* replace the old Toyo RA-1s I was driving around on with tires with some significant tread on them. (Yeah, that was probably worth a few ppm of NOx, I’m sure)
* Get an exemption sticker from the friendly folks at nearby referee station for the engine swap
So, failed notice in hand, I pointed the ‘ti back home, a little disappointed at my mechanic’s friend’s ability to ‘set me up’ but interested to see what the next step might be.
Step 2:
Install stock headers from the M50 donor engine. All I can say is that lovely equal-length headers are much nicer to look at than weenie around and try to remove. The engine mounts had to be loosened in order to get them off. A month or so later, while still in this process I decide to leave the stock headers on for a race at Laguna Seca and save some wear on those 24 tiny little copper bolts.
Step 3:
Visit to the Referee station in Fremont, recommended by Smog Guy. We start paperwork, and Fremont Referee Guy heads over to pull the car onto the roller dyno. Now he happens to be a very large fellow, at least 6’6” and un-skinny. After some trying to squeeze in, he asks if the seat will go back any further. I unbolted the seatback brace and got a few more inches, but between the door bars and the limited range for the seat, he just didn’t fit in.
Apologetic, he voided my test and sent me to the Evergreen station for testing.
Step 4:
First visit to the Evergreen Station, it took nearly three weeks to get my first appointment, unlike the Fremont station which just took a few days. After some more talking to other friends about referee stations in general, it seems most people that have gone there have had some sort of difficulty getting their car passed. Sure enough, the nice lady ahead of me in line was summarily failed for having the wrong headers on her truck, and sent packing. She asked the Evergreen Station Guy if she could put up a breast cancer awareness flyer in the office, which he promptly denied as well. I sucked in my breath and introduced him to the ‘ti.
Evergreen Station Guy didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned with the race car appearance, did fit in the car, and did get it onto the roller dyno test machine without problems. However, quickly things went bad as his test equipment could not contact the DMV or whichever big brother agency they do, and after some heated phone calls to try to get them working (whatever tech support they had just had him turn them off and on about 7 times) he gave up and told me I’d have to reschedule.
I asked him if we couldn’t look over the rest of the car and do any other certification or checking or anything else to check for which he denied until he could actually smog the car itself. He did ask to see the car’s computer, which as you know is hidden away behind a hinged door behind the battery mount area in the engine bay. Thinking I’d be endearing myself by helping out, I pulled it out, and he copied down the numbers listed on it; the VIN from the car it originally came from and the BOSCH part number. Much to my surprise, there wasn’t any BMW part number listed on the computer, which I found was going to be a problem.
My mechanic had written ’93 325 Auto’ on the back of the computer just as a reference to where the computer had come from (a junkyard) and Evergreen Station Guy flatly told me that it wouldn’t work. I tried to assure him that this handwritten information was not official, and that all OBD1 6 cylinder e36 engines did use the same computer, but he kept saying things like, “Well that’s what happens when you use a non-stock computer…” or “it’s got to be a stock computer for this car” when I’d just finished explaining that it was indeed the same ‘stock’ one that BMW used for this engine, and that if wasn’t the right one the car wouldn’t even start.
Before I left, Evergreen Station Guy had me write down that I needed specific documentation from BMW that this computer was the right one for a ’95 325 with a manual transmission. He voided my visit, and off I went to get more documentation.
Step 5.
First trip to BMW. I checked in with the service department at a local BMW dealership. While my ECU didn’t have a BMW part number listed, it did have a VIN from its original car, and I found my car’s brain did indeed formerly inhabit a white auto ’93 325 with Sand interior and a sunroof. The regular parts department wasn’t able to give me any useful information, but after some digging, the wholesale parts department was able to at least understand what I was trying to do. The bad news was that they could not match the Bosch part number and a BMW part number; only large parts wholesalers like SSF would have such information. The good news was that they were able to print out part numbers both for my ECU as well as a ’95 325, and they did indeed match. While this dealership wasn’t able to give me a work order as Evergreen Station Guy requested, I figured this was at least an official paper trail that logically showed that:
My ECU = VIN Number X
VIN Number X => Specific ’93 BMW
Specific ’93 BMW’s ECU Part Number = Generic ’95 BMW’s part number
Armed with this new information, I again waited 3 weeks to get an appointment at Evergreen Station.
Step 6:
My appointment at Evergreen Station was first thing in the morning and as I pulled up I observed Evergreen Station Guy in a shouting match with one of the guys that ran the automotive school next door. After waiting fifteen minutes while they sorted their issues Evergreen Station Guy fumed up to me, got out the appropriate paperwork and started the test. Still cooling down from the exchange, I agreed with him, yes, that other guy sure was being unreasonable… Not that I fully understood what they were talking about.
Still worried about Evergreen Station Guy’s mood, I watched as he put the car on the rollers, ran through the tests, and started recording data. About halfway through he offhandedly asked me about the engine computer, and before I could answer, said, “Oh, that’s right we checked that last time…” and went back to his work. He checked the location of the evaporation cylinder as well as a few other engine bay necessities as he went.
I couldn’t see the results the machine was putting out, but it appeared that things were running smoothly, and I held a little hope I’d finally get my sticker today and get out of there.
But it was not to be. I’d run a bottle of RXP through the engine in hopes that it would help the slightly high HC and NOx numbers, and while the HC numbers were half of what they were before, the NOx numbers were double. So, at least one more trip would be necessary to take care of that. The last dyno had showed my engine running rather rich at high load and rpm, but it must be running on the lean side just putting along as they did on the smog dyno.
Once the car was done, he also brought out the ECU issue again, and told me he’d done some research and that none of the numbers on the ECU matched what his documentation said. I promptly produced the printouts from BMW and showed him how the ECU in my car should indeed be the right one. What followed was a bizarre repeat of the previous ECU discussion we’d had.
“I can’t find any part numbers to match your ECU.”
“Right, that’s a Bosch part number, not a BMW part number.”
“Well, you can’t use an aftermarket computer.”
“It’s not – it’s the stock computer that BMW uses.”
“BMW needs to put that part number on a work order then.”
“But nobody has that information except parts wholesalers.”
“No, the information has to come from a smog-approved BMW dealer.”
“But they don’t have that information. I have the wholesale parts manager’s number – we can give him a call and he can tell you the same thing.”
“There should be a part number. The one on the ECU doesn’t match.”
(and repeat)
After going around this for a few times, it appeared that Evergreen Station Guy had really dug in like a bulldog on the ‘BMW work order’ concept, and wasn’t going to budge. He copied the printouts from the dealership, but since none of them were work orders, he still wanted more.
Step 7:
After leaving the station, I tried to figure out my next move. Given liability-shy times BMW dealership wasn’t going to just bless the engine swap that I’d done (even though I’d essentially made a Euro 323ti) and the fact that the car was actually running wasn’t good enough for the referee.
The ‘Work Order’ mantra got me to thinking though - If I had the BMW dealership install the computer in the car, I could get the information on a work order that this specific ECU (however it was identified) was installed into this car with this 325 engine, by BMW and was ostensibly working. All I needed to do was drive the car down to the dealer, pull the ECU out of the car, hand it to the mechanic, and pay them to install it.
I got in touch with my local dealership again and made an appointment to get the car in. Three weeks later I got the car in (these three week waits were really killing me!!), and was able to explain to the service advisor what I needed; just for them to install the computer in my car. With the documentation I’d already assembled, they agreed about the OBD1 I6 computers all matching, and after three days sitting at the dealer and an hour of their time, I had my work order that stated the magic words:
ALL 2.5l ENGINES FROM 92-95 USE THE SAME COMPUTER
Actually, this was even more than I’d expected. I’d hoped to get Evergreen Station Guy to believe I had the right computer just by inference, but this was a pretty tacit approval from the dealership that the computer I had was indeed correct for this car. I’d just have to address the NOx issue, and hopefully that would be all that was necessary to get my sticker…
Step 8:
Return to the Referee station again, nearly six weeks later, the Referee station’s scheduling center had called and cancelled one appointment, and I’d had to cancel one due to a disintegrating water pump.
Evergreen Station Guy seemed to be in a better mood today and poked at his computer while his assistant prepped my car. Each time they took possession of the car, they had to fill out a form that resembled a rental car agreement that detailed any dings or other damage to the car. Seeing as my car has picked up a cornucopia of minor dings, dents, creases and chips from its thousands of miles of racing, it was detailed enough that they kept the original sheet but just found new places on it for me to sign. By this time, the sheet looked like some demented fool had attempted to record autographs on a sheet from an old coloring book. The assistant smiled and shrugged, but I told him not to worry.
Evergreen Station Guy then asked me about the computer again, and I promptly whipped out my printing from the BMW dealership. He read it through several times, and somewhat disappointedly agreed this did serve as ‘official’ documentation from BMW that my engine and computer did indeed match.
His mood improved later, however, when my car put out about twice the NOx it was supposed to, and failed.
Step 9:
After going over all my other options, I dug out the stock chip for my computer, pried it open, and reinstalled it. I also drove my car to work in the morning, dropped $40 on 6.5 gallons of 100 Octane gas (with MTBE) and arrived right in time to pull in with the car all warmed up.
The previous appointment was still finishing up, a beautiful Shelby Cobra Kit car that had apparently just passed. They were in the process of affixing the sticker to the customer’s engine bay and the owner, a mid-fifties executive type roared, “Hey I don’t care where you put it, that’s a six thousand dollar sticker!” I didn’t get a chance to chat with the fellow as he quickly hopped in his car and rumbled away, but it appeared he’d been to visit Evergreen Station Guy a few times himself.
I once again signed the Coloring Book Page Of Many Signatures, and in a minor change of procedure, ESG and his assistant got the car onto the dyno relatively quickly and got the test started.
Typically the test can run for up to 90 seconds to give the car time to warm up, but even with the high 50 degree temperatures, it took less than 20 to get a good reading, and they shut the car down. “Huh… Looks like you passed.” ESG guy said as he maneuvered out from around my door bar. It was close though, at 25mph they allow 50 ppm of Hydrocarbons, and sure enough, my car put out exactly 50.
I had another minor heart-attack when they ran the test to be sure the gas cap seals properly; I flashed back to 2004 when the ti squeaked by smog and the smog guy then had the same trouble. After some fiddling around with the equipment, however, they got it working, and handed over the necessary documentation.
The End?
As a postscript, after six months of driving the car back and forth to the referee station, track events, and BTM Motorwerks to swap out my water pumps, I was pulled over on the way home by one of California’s Finest, and asked where my current tags were. With a jubilant flourish I whipped out my smog certificate, explained I’d just got it certified, and offered to show him my new under-hood sticker. The officer declined and sent me on my way.
Hopefully this will help anyone plan for any engine swaps they may be considering if they want to keep their car legal for the streets here in California.
The car:
As per the sig pic, it isn't fooling anyone that it's a daily driver. The interior is stripped leaving most of the dash there, and a very nice 8 point TC Designs cage takes its place. It's quite low, hot inside, and on the freeway it easily pushes 90db, probably louder on the inside than the outside. The graphics and stickers have just about every kid out there trying to race me, even a dusty old pickup truck full of garden equipment came zooming up behind me once while I was waiting at a light. He hit the right turn lane, jammed on the gas and did a credible drift if not losing part of his load and careening into traffic as I sat there and watched. As a result of that and the low gearing (4000 rpm at 80 in 5th), I usually end up driving it granny style on the street just to avoid any trouble.
The swap:
I build the car primarily to be competitive with USTCC regulations which, in a nutshell, specify all BMW parts, computer, and a minimum weight relating to the displacement of the engine. We sized it to give a weight of 2725 with driver, which was close to the car's weight anyhow, so that was the least expensive option to build a somewhat competitive car. At its finish, the swap included a borrowed stock 325 airbox, a e36 center section with cats, a Bosch 413 ecu tuned by DSR, a custom midas cherry-bomb enabled muffler and a very nice set of headers I happened to get for a song and a dance. The whole thing put down about 200hp / 185tq to the wheels running on the rich side, which isn't all the power it could deliver, but it was safe until I could install more gauges, oil temp, oil pressure, EGT, etc.
So, nearly all stock parts that say 'BMW' on them, emissions equipment in place and my DMV printout bearing the works "TEST ONLY STATION" in hand, I made my first stop at a smog check station.
Step One:
This particular smog check station was recommended by my mechanic that helped with the swap. My mechanic works on BMWs and Porsches, and it appears one of the few cars that's more difficult to get to pass smog than BMW 4 or 12 cylinder cars are mid 80s 911s. "Go to this guy, he'll set you up!", my mechanic said. Half hoping I could take care of everything right then and there, I cruised in mid-morning with the car nice and warm to be sure it didn't sit around while other people were getting checked.
Station Guy took a look at me and my car and started asking up front about the cats, the emissions equipment, the headers, the airbox, serial numbers on the ECU, etc, etc, and within about 3 minutes of driving up, I realized this fellow wasn't going to miss a single thing. Luckily, nobody else was there, and it looked like I would get to go right away.
But just as he got ready to test my car, another Porsche mechanic drove up in a nice early 80s 911SC, waved frantically to the guy and proceeded right into the bay without a stop. The fire drill started as Station Guy ran over, yanked the testing equipment off the wall and like a practiced ER surgeon plugged various sensors and probes in getting the smog readings from the car in just a few minutes.
Once that car was out of the way, he brought my car in to have a look. He started by noting the piece of dryer hose I had attached to front of the stock airbox (home-depot style CAI) and said that would cause the car to fail. Ignoring my offers to remove it on the spot, he continued examining the intake and exhaust system, looking somewhat confused. I thought to offer some help regarding the newly installed engine but I was still a little miffed about 911SC guy jumping in front of me to test, so I thought I’d just let him figure it out for himself.
Finally after consulting some documentation and making a few phone calls Station Guy walked over to me and said, "This engine doesn't belong in this car!"
"No," I admitted, "Not really, but it's all from parts of the same year..." Rolling his eyes, he started into the process I'd have to go through, getting it certified at an official referee station, getting an exemption sticker for the engine, and going on from there. Sure, things I figured I’d probably have to do, but Station Guy did actually have some good advice about the process, such as which referee stations were less strict, and what they would look for.
Finally, to test the smog output he finally hooked it up to the dyno. The car ran relatively cleanly, but was about 200ppm too high on NOx at 35mph. Not that bad, actually, probably cleaner than most vehicles that saw 3000 highway miles a year, but I wasn’t going to pass smog that day.
The list of changes he recommended were:
* be sure the car had a stock computer (he didn’t look at it)
* find stock headers or get a CARB exemption sticker for them from the manufacturer
* replace the old Toyo RA-1s I was driving around on with tires with some significant tread on them. (Yeah, that was probably worth a few ppm of NOx, I’m sure)
* Get an exemption sticker from the friendly folks at nearby referee station for the engine swap
So, failed notice in hand, I pointed the ‘ti back home, a little disappointed at my mechanic’s friend’s ability to ‘set me up’ but interested to see what the next step might be.
Step 2:
Install stock headers from the M50 donor engine. All I can say is that lovely equal-length headers are much nicer to look at than weenie around and try to remove. The engine mounts had to be loosened in order to get them off. A month or so later, while still in this process I decide to leave the stock headers on for a race at Laguna Seca and save some wear on those 24 tiny little copper bolts.
Step 3:
Visit to the Referee station in Fremont, recommended by Smog Guy. We start paperwork, and Fremont Referee Guy heads over to pull the car onto the roller dyno. Now he happens to be a very large fellow, at least 6’6” and un-skinny. After some trying to squeeze in, he asks if the seat will go back any further. I unbolted the seatback brace and got a few more inches, but between the door bars and the limited range for the seat, he just didn’t fit in.
Apologetic, he voided my test and sent me to the Evergreen station for testing.
Step 4:
First visit to the Evergreen Station, it took nearly three weeks to get my first appointment, unlike the Fremont station which just took a few days. After some more talking to other friends about referee stations in general, it seems most people that have gone there have had some sort of difficulty getting their car passed. Sure enough, the nice lady ahead of me in line was summarily failed for having the wrong headers on her truck, and sent packing. She asked the Evergreen Station Guy if she could put up a breast cancer awareness flyer in the office, which he promptly denied as well. I sucked in my breath and introduced him to the ‘ti.
Evergreen Station Guy didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned with the race car appearance, did fit in the car, and did get it onto the roller dyno test machine without problems. However, quickly things went bad as his test equipment could not contact the DMV or whichever big brother agency they do, and after some heated phone calls to try to get them working (whatever tech support they had just had him turn them off and on about 7 times) he gave up and told me I’d have to reschedule.
I asked him if we couldn’t look over the rest of the car and do any other certification or checking or anything else to check for which he denied until he could actually smog the car itself. He did ask to see the car’s computer, which as you know is hidden away behind a hinged door behind the battery mount area in the engine bay. Thinking I’d be endearing myself by helping out, I pulled it out, and he copied down the numbers listed on it; the VIN from the car it originally came from and the BOSCH part number. Much to my surprise, there wasn’t any BMW part number listed on the computer, which I found was going to be a problem.
My mechanic had written ’93 325 Auto’ on the back of the computer just as a reference to where the computer had come from (a junkyard) and Evergreen Station Guy flatly told me that it wouldn’t work. I tried to assure him that this handwritten information was not official, and that all OBD1 6 cylinder e36 engines did use the same computer, but he kept saying things like, “Well that’s what happens when you use a non-stock computer…” or “it’s got to be a stock computer for this car” when I’d just finished explaining that it was indeed the same ‘stock’ one that BMW used for this engine, and that if wasn’t the right one the car wouldn’t even start.
Before I left, Evergreen Station Guy had me write down that I needed specific documentation from BMW that this computer was the right one for a ’95 325 with a manual transmission. He voided my visit, and off I went to get more documentation.
Step 5.
First trip to BMW. I checked in with the service department at a local BMW dealership. While my ECU didn’t have a BMW part number listed, it did have a VIN from its original car, and I found my car’s brain did indeed formerly inhabit a white auto ’93 325 with Sand interior and a sunroof. The regular parts department wasn’t able to give me any useful information, but after some digging, the wholesale parts department was able to at least understand what I was trying to do. The bad news was that they could not match the Bosch part number and a BMW part number; only large parts wholesalers like SSF would have such information. The good news was that they were able to print out part numbers both for my ECU as well as a ’95 325, and they did indeed match. While this dealership wasn’t able to give me a work order as Evergreen Station Guy requested, I figured this was at least an official paper trail that logically showed that:
My ECU = VIN Number X
VIN Number X => Specific ’93 BMW
Specific ’93 BMW’s ECU Part Number = Generic ’95 BMW’s part number
Armed with this new information, I again waited 3 weeks to get an appointment at Evergreen Station.
Step 6:
My appointment at Evergreen Station was first thing in the morning and as I pulled up I observed Evergreen Station Guy in a shouting match with one of the guys that ran the automotive school next door. After waiting fifteen minutes while they sorted their issues Evergreen Station Guy fumed up to me, got out the appropriate paperwork and started the test. Still cooling down from the exchange, I agreed with him, yes, that other guy sure was being unreasonable… Not that I fully understood what they were talking about.
Still worried about Evergreen Station Guy’s mood, I watched as he put the car on the rollers, ran through the tests, and started recording data. About halfway through he offhandedly asked me about the engine computer, and before I could answer, said, “Oh, that’s right we checked that last time…” and went back to his work. He checked the location of the evaporation cylinder as well as a few other engine bay necessities as he went.
I couldn’t see the results the machine was putting out, but it appeared that things were running smoothly, and I held a little hope I’d finally get my sticker today and get out of there.
But it was not to be. I’d run a bottle of RXP through the engine in hopes that it would help the slightly high HC and NOx numbers, and while the HC numbers were half of what they were before, the NOx numbers were double. So, at least one more trip would be necessary to take care of that. The last dyno had showed my engine running rather rich at high load and rpm, but it must be running on the lean side just putting along as they did on the smog dyno.
Once the car was done, he also brought out the ECU issue again, and told me he’d done some research and that none of the numbers on the ECU matched what his documentation said. I promptly produced the printouts from BMW and showed him how the ECU in my car should indeed be the right one. What followed was a bizarre repeat of the previous ECU discussion we’d had.
“I can’t find any part numbers to match your ECU.”
“Right, that’s a Bosch part number, not a BMW part number.”
“Well, you can’t use an aftermarket computer.”
“It’s not – it’s the stock computer that BMW uses.”
“BMW needs to put that part number on a work order then.”
“But nobody has that information except parts wholesalers.”
“No, the information has to come from a smog-approved BMW dealer.”
“But they don’t have that information. I have the wholesale parts manager’s number – we can give him a call and he can tell you the same thing.”
“There should be a part number. The one on the ECU doesn’t match.”
(and repeat)
After going around this for a few times, it appeared that Evergreen Station Guy had really dug in like a bulldog on the ‘BMW work order’ concept, and wasn’t going to budge. He copied the printouts from the dealership, but since none of them were work orders, he still wanted more.
Step 7:
After leaving the station, I tried to figure out my next move. Given liability-shy times BMW dealership wasn’t going to just bless the engine swap that I’d done (even though I’d essentially made a Euro 323ti) and the fact that the car was actually running wasn’t good enough for the referee.
The ‘Work Order’ mantra got me to thinking though - If I had the BMW dealership install the computer in the car, I could get the information on a work order that this specific ECU (however it was identified) was installed into this car with this 325 engine, by BMW and was ostensibly working. All I needed to do was drive the car down to the dealer, pull the ECU out of the car, hand it to the mechanic, and pay them to install it.
I got in touch with my local dealership again and made an appointment to get the car in. Three weeks later I got the car in (these three week waits were really killing me!!), and was able to explain to the service advisor what I needed; just for them to install the computer in my car. With the documentation I’d already assembled, they agreed about the OBD1 I6 computers all matching, and after three days sitting at the dealer and an hour of their time, I had my work order that stated the magic words:
ALL 2.5l ENGINES FROM 92-95 USE THE SAME COMPUTER
Actually, this was even more than I’d expected. I’d hoped to get Evergreen Station Guy to believe I had the right computer just by inference, but this was a pretty tacit approval from the dealership that the computer I had was indeed correct for this car. I’d just have to address the NOx issue, and hopefully that would be all that was necessary to get my sticker…
Step 8:
Return to the Referee station again, nearly six weeks later, the Referee station’s scheduling center had called and cancelled one appointment, and I’d had to cancel one due to a disintegrating water pump.
Evergreen Station Guy seemed to be in a better mood today and poked at his computer while his assistant prepped my car. Each time they took possession of the car, they had to fill out a form that resembled a rental car agreement that detailed any dings or other damage to the car. Seeing as my car has picked up a cornucopia of minor dings, dents, creases and chips from its thousands of miles of racing, it was detailed enough that they kept the original sheet but just found new places on it for me to sign. By this time, the sheet looked like some demented fool had attempted to record autographs on a sheet from an old coloring book. The assistant smiled and shrugged, but I told him not to worry.
Evergreen Station Guy then asked me about the computer again, and I promptly whipped out my printing from the BMW dealership. He read it through several times, and somewhat disappointedly agreed this did serve as ‘official’ documentation from BMW that my engine and computer did indeed match.
His mood improved later, however, when my car put out about twice the NOx it was supposed to, and failed.
Step 9:
After going over all my other options, I dug out the stock chip for my computer, pried it open, and reinstalled it. I also drove my car to work in the morning, dropped $40 on 6.5 gallons of 100 Octane gas (with MTBE) and arrived right in time to pull in with the car all warmed up.
The previous appointment was still finishing up, a beautiful Shelby Cobra Kit car that had apparently just passed. They were in the process of affixing the sticker to the customer’s engine bay and the owner, a mid-fifties executive type roared, “Hey I don’t care where you put it, that’s a six thousand dollar sticker!” I didn’t get a chance to chat with the fellow as he quickly hopped in his car and rumbled away, but it appeared he’d been to visit Evergreen Station Guy a few times himself.
I once again signed the Coloring Book Page Of Many Signatures, and in a minor change of procedure, ESG and his assistant got the car onto the dyno relatively quickly and got the test started.
Typically the test can run for up to 90 seconds to give the car time to warm up, but even with the high 50 degree temperatures, it took less than 20 to get a good reading, and they shut the car down. “Huh… Looks like you passed.” ESG guy said as he maneuvered out from around my door bar. It was close though, at 25mph they allow 50 ppm of Hydrocarbons, and sure enough, my car put out exactly 50.
I had another minor heart-attack when they ran the test to be sure the gas cap seals properly; I flashed back to 2004 when the ti squeaked by smog and the smog guy then had the same trouble. After some fiddling around with the equipment, however, they got it working, and handed over the necessary documentation.
The End?
As a postscript, after six months of driving the car back and forth to the referee station, track events, and BTM Motorwerks to swap out my water pumps, I was pulled over on the way home by one of California’s Finest, and asked where my current tags were. With a jubilant flourish I whipped out my smog certificate, explained I’d just got it certified, and offered to show him my new under-hood sticker. The officer declined and sent me on my way.
Hopefully this will help anyone plan for any engine swaps they may be considering if they want to keep their car legal for the streets here in California.