I have been poking around the net looking for some answers on whether or not an LQ4 can be swapped into a RCSB 1500 LEGALLY here in California. If the motor is from the same year or newer and from the same "classification of vehicle" it can be swapped in and given the "ok" by the state....you bring it to a state run facility to be inspected and they look at all of the smog equipment......if everything is hooked up the way the LQ4 was from the factory in the original truck.....they give you a sticker in the door telling everyone who smogs the truck or inspects it (cops) that the engine change was legal.....
I KNOW that it's a lot of hassle....but shady smoging the truck or registering it in another state just isn't going to happen for me....I get deployed a lot and I don't want my g/f to have to tear the motor out of the truck if the smog guy see's it's not a 5.3 and decides to not smog it.....
I have hear about a few LQ9 swapped trucks being "legally" swapped into trucks because the silverado SS and the VHO were the same "classification" of vehicle as the 1500 they swapped it into......I haven't seen an LQ4 done like that and I was wondering if the 1500HD was a different "classification" of vehicle or over some Gross vehicle weight limit to have it's motor swapped into a smaller RCSB 1500 of the same year.
I have an 07 RCSB 1500 and I've been looking at prices of LQ4's compared to LQ9's that are from 07.....LQ4's are a LOT cheaper....and seem to dyno pretty decent for the money....
What do you guys think? I know that everyone is going to say swap the motor and dont worry about the legal junk.....but if I swap the LQ4 into my truck and all of the smog stuff hooks up and is the SAME anyways.....doesn't seem like it would be much of a problem getting it legal other than getting it inspected and cutting some red tape.....

*has anyone ever heard of an LQ4 swapped 1500 set-up like I am talking
about that was california smog legal?
*does the LQ4 have the same smog equipment as the 5.3 (LM7)?
*Is the 1500HD in the same "classification" of vehicle as the RCSB 1500?

 

i just smogged my truck and it passed fine, its running the 5.3 stuff that was original to the truck, and since i didnt have any problems smogging it i say EFF the state and i wont go to the ref to make it legit, i have the reciepts and it passes the sniffer and i dont plan to sell this truck, if i did have issues then i would have looked into getting the smog stuff from a 6.0 vehicle

mine is an 01 with all the egr AIR crap with an 04 LQ4

 

The only way they can tell its not a 5.3 is by checkin the back of the bock which would have to be pulled out to check or by pulling a head off..And the 1500HD is in a different class..

 

well i did an lq4 swap on my 03 z71 silverado wich origally came with the lm7, know i did NOT go through the hole legal prosses i just swap the motor and cammed it , the truck as of rite now has shortys with out of state high flow cats , know it wont pass a visual test but it passed the emission test with flying colors ! the reson i now this i hade to smog it a few weekes ago and , well lets just say i have tags!

 

So I guess the LQ4 is just going to be a mess to try and do legally with an older truck like that with EGR and AIR injection junk....I don't remember if they stopped all of that EGR stuff with the trucks with the 02 years and up like the F-bodies, and I haven't looked at the exhaust manifolds on my 07 to see if it has A.I.R injection tubes...I'm not around my truck right now....do you guys remember if they stopped all of that junk at a certain year?
I am stuck between doing the high lift XR265 (212/218) cam, some PRC 2.5 5.3L heads (not sure about the bigger valves though), shortie headers, and MAYBE a TBSS intake....those things...or just step up to a 6.0...at the point where all of those parts come together I'll be at a higher dollar amount than an LQ9...I'm just not sure what route I'd like to go....I just want the truck to trap between 100-105mph...and if I can do it with the 5.3 cammed/2800 stall/misc speed parts...then so be it....I just keep seeing LQ4's for the same price as a used 5.3 and half the price of an 07 LQ9...

 

D_Reks....what did you dyno down at Cal speed and how big is your cam? I am transfering from china lake (ridgecrest) over to lemoore in the next week...when I get back from deployment I wanted to get down to bakersfield to have them tune the truck...tired of the mail order stuff, and I saw a few of their trucks out at famoso last time I was there with my truck...it was a white extended cab on some hoosiers, red RCSB with a stock LQ9 swap and drag radials, and then a tahoe that made my truck look like it was only on 6 plugs...ha ha...

 

They stopped all the EGR crap in 04' I believe, And I dyno'd 335rwhp in 106* heat with my TR220(220/220 .551 .551 @112). But Dyno numbers dont really matter, its all about track times which I dont have yet.. I am putting in an L76 6.0 with L92 heads in next week tho. Should be fun. Calspeed does great work, And Jim is an awesome tuner and knows his ****. PM me if you have any more questions about them..

 

your pcm or ecu is doing the talking with the smog machine......... pass sniff and visual and it's all good

it's as simple as that

 

Can't you just swap your 07 in/ex manifolds, valve covers with the LQ4/LQ9? Run your 5.3 tune when smogged and then you are good for the next 2 years hassle free. No matter what year the block is they look identical. The ref will not be able to tell if you did an engine change just by looking at it. I think the LQ4/LQ9's head ports should match up to your manifolds perfectly. My .02

 

Yeah the sniffer and the computer isn't what I was worried about....you can snif a preeeetty retarded set-up as long as the cats are good....I was more worried about some guy trying to be a "hero" and noticing the head castings are not the stock ones if I have them milled and ported from a place with a big ole ensignia on the front of the head showing their company logo....I keep on thinking I might be able to have them NOT put the logo on the head and just cut that part out of their CNC job to stay under the radar completely from cops and smog techs.....
The ensignia on the side of the head from a company and the more lopey than stock idle MIGHT make someone nervous at a smog station or a cop might be just having a bad day if he pulls me over for driving back from the track on my ET streets....ha ha...