This might be an odd question but, is the elcamino considered a car or a truck? I always thought of it as a car but some others are saying its classified as a truck. Im contemplating a ls swap and need to know what it would be classified as. Being as i am in california i need to know for swap reasons.
Thanks again fellas.

That never came up when I got my LT1 swap certified at the B.A.R.

you mean i can put an ls1 engine into my 84 el camino without problems with smog in ca?

Hi,

I recently put an LS 1 5.3 into my 1969 el Camino. Since it is over 30 years old it is exempt from smog testing. However it is not legal to remove the smog equipment that came on the vehicle. If you want to have a "legal" and compliant vehicle you would have to keep all of the orginal equipment that came on the engine you are swap in to your el Camino. Then you would have to go to a SMOG Referee station and get a CARB (California Air Resources Board) Certification. It is not really all that bad, just make sure any mods, like headers, have a CARB certification.

Well I hope this has been helpful. If you have any questions about your engine swap just drop me an email. I really learned a lot about swapping an LS engine into my el Camino.

Good Luck,

Have a good one,

Bill

Its legal to do an engine change using the LS1 into Your El camino.The LS1 will have to meet the same emission standard of the car it came from. B.A.R will want all emission equipment installed and operating like A.I.R pump,charcol canister,vent valve,green evap test port, cats, O2 sensors,ALDLport,and the moniters in the PCM functioning. They may want you to use stock Ex manifolds and fuel tank from donor car. The LS1 cannot be from a truck. I believe this info is correct. :yell:

One of the popular late model drive-train-earlier model swaps is putting a Hemi drive train in an older Jeep Wrangler. As LS1 said you have to include and meet the smog levels based on whatever year the drive train is, but the way the auto recycler's pull the drive-train the computer/harness engine and trans all come as a complete package. Your origional question is a good one. I thought the DMV ruling was based on that the late model D.T. had to be of the same mfr. There are a lot more truck LSX drive train's at the auto recycler's and it would be a bummer if you had to wait for an LSX car version....:dontknow:

You could actually use the LS motor from a truck. The only difference between a truck and a car LS motors is the intake. You could swap the intake in about 10 minutes with 1 from a car. You buy the car intakes all day long on the Camaro boards because guys are upgrading to aftermaket units.

As as its been said you have to pass smog for the year motor you are installing in your El. So all smog equip from the donor car needs to be in place. I had to go twice to pass. The inspector wanted me to move the cats closer to the motor. Went back blow way clean on the sniffer and got the sticker put on and away I went.

I don't know if stock exhaust manifolds for an LS1 car will clear the frame on an Elky. Someone that has done this conversion would be able to give an answer on that. You do not have to use the gas tank from the donor car, in all likelihood it would not fit. But you have to have the fume return line etc working and you would want a baffled tank so you would be looking at a new tank.

The dmv stuff here in california really is vague when it comes to engine swaps. In on paragraph it states the engine has to be from the same platform i.e truck has to have a truck engine car has to have a car engine as long as the engine is of the same year or newer than the chasis.

I have read a book made specifically for swaping tune ports into s10 blazers and it gave you all the info you needed for a legal california swap. The s10 trucks and blazers are condisdered trucks and as we all know tune ports only came in vettes camaros and firebirds. Now from what i just read above i see that atleast one person has a LS1 and had no problems getting the swap sticker.

EL S ONE. Is your engine an actual 5.7 ls1 or a 5.3 truck engine

Do they make a carb approved header for swaps of this nature? I was talking to the guys at thorely for a set for my 86 truck when it comes time to do the swap for that and they told me it was way to expensive to make carb approved headers for swaps.

riverelk, My engine is a '04' LS1 5.7 from a car. I run F-body (Camero) exhaust manifolds.I was told JBA make a shorty header thats C.A.R.B approved for Camero LS1s . :yell:

so as long as the headers are for that engine and not specific to the car they are still carb approved?
didnt know that.