St. Louis Area Car Inspections
 

Guys -

I purchased a '92 Camaro RS with an LS1/4L60E swap about a week ago. Took the car in to get inspected today, and the inspection station said it failed because the engine in the car wasn't of the same model year of the car, and as such doesn't have the 1992 emissions controls. So even though the car doesn't need an emissions inspection anymore, and it likely runs cleaner than the old '92 305TBI engine, the new engine doesn't qual. The guys were nice enough to not type of a fail, and recommended finding another shop, do you guys have any suggestions? Needing to find a shop that specializing in swaps and can help this car get back on the road.

Thanks!

Re: St. Louis Area Car Inspections
 

BTW - All is well. I feel that the "engine swap rules" are interpreted as the MO Highway Patrol .pdf isn't very clear...engines can't swap classes (car - truck / vice versa) and can't be older than the model vehicle you're putting the car into. Additionally, they have to maintain the factory emissions components, but I'm unsure if that's for the year engine you have, or the year car you have...that's the only confusing bit.

I did find a shop, got it inspected, and am on my way.

Re: St. Louis Area Car Inspections
 

Strange they gave you a problem. Mine is registered in Columbia, and when it went to get inspected, they looked at it, and sent me on my way. Not one word about the swap, or about a failure.

Re: St. Louis Area Car Inspections
 

Does Columbia have Emissions testing? It's been 15 yrs since I moved out of MO, but when I was there St. Louis area had to have Safety and Emissions testing, other areas of the state only had to have Safety inspections, but even those were a headache at some shops, others made sure your lights worked and slapped a sticker on the windshield.

Re: St. Louis Area Car Inspections
 

My dad handled all of that for me. I was stationed in Italy when I bought the car and it was registered. What he told me is that their emissions testing was plugging a scanner into the OBD2 port and seeing if there were any codes and stuff. They only test emissions on the OBD2 cars, and let everything older go. They assumed that mine was a 305 auto car like the VIN says that it is, so I just sailed right on by.

Re: St. Louis Area Car Inspections
 

I'm pretty certain the ONLY reason the guy at station said anything (besides them being a more "difficult station") was because they saw the Corvette engine covers, and they looked at the vacuum/emissions diagram and didn't notice an air pump.

St. Louis got rid of the Dyno emissions testing that was done during the late 90's - mid 2000's. And as stated, now they're plugging in OBDII cars. Older vehicles do not have to pass any "emissions" testing, but they do an emissions equipment visual inspection on the car. Advice for most in the area is to go away from the city and get inspected. A friend of mine has a lot of experience swapping LS1's into jeeps, and also recommended a guy to use for the inspection...but once again, I think he's away from town as well.

Re: St. Louis Area Car Inspections
 

Total false, engine must be of the same year or newer in MO. If your close to the Ofallon area, come out and see me and we can do something.

Re: St. Louis Area Car Inspections
 

Anything older than 96 doesn't need a emissions. You do have to have cats and original emissions equipment.

Re: St. Louis Area Car Inspections
 

I was only relaying my experiences.