NYS regulations for drivetrain swap

Headaches and more headaches. Anybody have info on legally changing drivetrains in their street car? Weeks of phone calls with DMV officials is resulting in nothing but bad news. Any leads on successful swaps would be appriciated.

What are you trying to do? Last I can remember if it was the same model year or newer you could do the swap without issues. I don't know about registering the car though if it is a v6 to v8 swap.

Register it by vin and put whatever the fuck you want inside it. Murica.

If you are trying to put..... say a pushrod 5.0 in a S197 car, that's not gonna fly. But if you are going to put a 4.6 3V in a 2005-2010 V6 you should be able to pull it off without too much trouble.

What are you wanting to do exactly?

The goal was to put the newer 5.0 in it. the 4.6 is a dinosaur as well at this point. I was researching getting a late model wreck at auction so I would have all the nuts/bolts and electronics to go with it to make the swap. I'm building a street/ weekend road course car so I don't need tons of hp. All the officiates are saying any change in engine displacement is illegal. Regulations are so strict you can even put a 3.7 stroked out to 4.0 in it as the engine code for the VIN still wont match. So I'm stuck with the 4.0. IF anyone has experience with a reputable engine builder/parts supplier on the east coast let me know. I would like to stay naturally aspirated in the 300-350hp range.

There is possibly a way. It might not be worth it. If involves getting a new VIN. It may make the car almost unsellable in the future.

There are two ways. I only know people who have done it the easy way.

Easy way: get a tuner that can get it to pass electronically, and tip the tech doing the inspection.

Hard way: in theory, if you have every piece of paperwork relating to the donor car, you can get the DMV to allow it if the host car is older than the engine from the same manufacturer. I've never heard of anybody getting this done, and it will probably be more time wasted than it is worth.


Just get the right tuner, and pray the state never catches on.

It's been a few years, but iirc if it's a newer engine like you plan on doing you'll be fine.

The inspection machine will check VIN, but I had a 98 with a 94 VIN coded in for some reason, never had an issue. And yes, they were even different motors.

Oh also keep on mind that metro and non metro areas can have different opinions, but a pcm Vin mismatch shouldn't be an issue.

I have finally been able to talk to NYS officiates that have directed me to actual documentation on how this has to work. This is all relative to NYS so dig into your state laws for confirmation. The NY DEC states that you have to use the engine from the same make/model or newer for the swap, ie: mustang to mustang. They also state that all the emissions systems/components/electronics need to be present and functional. The NYS inspection equipment will verify readiness status and DTCs when its hooked up to the cars DLC. So as long as all systems are in place and functional that wont be an issue. Go to the DEC.NY.gov web site to see more details and there is a link to the "engine switch fact sheet".
I also spoke with a NYS clean air officer and he informed me of the processes of the NYS inspection. He said as far as getting the car inspected each year the process is all the same with the exception of the fact that the system will see two different VINs. This will not prevent the system from issuing a new inspection sticker as long as there are no DTCs and the readiness status is "ok". Again which if all systems are properly installed wont be an issue. The inspection will be "red flagged" which will trigger investigation proceedings at the state level of the DMV. This will cause them to contact the garage doing the inspection for verification of the situation with this vehicle. This can be avoided via the garage calling the state DMV at the time of the inspection to clarify what the situation is with the car. So I would highly recommend taking a copy of all pertinent documentation with you when you go to get the car inspected that they can keep for their records. So disaster averted and the quest continues to find a good "donor" car for a 5.0 swap.

Man I am glad inspections for me are not that rough.

NY inspections (outside NYC anyway) aren't bad. But then again they are a BIG reason why I just bought a 25 year old car. Safety only inspection. No emissions inspection.

^ This. NYSVIP isn't bad if you know how to deal with it. Where people get in trouble is using email tuners that are used to reasonable bureaucracy, which is very different from the bureaucracy we have in NY.

i would give realspeed in bohemia a call. they've done a few 4.6 to 5.0 swaps

ive never herd of this...i live in ny and have friends who own jap cars that have ls swaps in their cars and get inspections every year lol.

EGNARO said:

i would give realspeed in bohemia a call. they've done a few 4.6 to 5.0 swaps

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have they? i know they did a 5.0 swap into a fox, but have they done a newer car? its probably gonna be my next big mod in a couple of years...

Makes me glad I live in MS. We have nothing here. Just kicked inspection stickers to the curb in June. People take advantage of it too LOL

ECUs are coded with a VIN?

I live in NY and I see motor swaps done left and right like ls in Miata, 2jz in e36 and etc.

All registered and ny inspected.

For inspection they scan the registration vin sticker on the windshield and plug the obd2 for emissions check only.

As long as all that checks out nobody will care what engine your running.

No one in the dmv will come after you as they don't have the resources for that either.

o2sys said:

No one in the dmv will come after you as they don't have the resources for that either.

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They can and do. They pursued my buddy who imported a VW the us market never got. I'd link the vwvortex thread about it, but vwv is blocked by our network...

Importing is a different story, you are dealing with crash safety regulations now....

I'm just saying, they have people whose entire job involves trying to fuck the motoring public as much as possible if something isn't quite right.