In a recent prophetic moment, I was quizzing Jim Forbes about emissions testing
issues
on older vehicles with swapped engines in case that ever became an issue in TN.
Since that time (maybe 2 weeks ago?) TN has been told that they have been
naughty air
quality wise and would be forced to comply with various EPA fixes including,
they
suspect, vehicle emissions testing and probably that reformulated gas that
makes you
guys out west pay a dollar more per gallon than we currently do.
TN currently has no emissions testing or safety inspections...never has.
Questions:
1--My 58 Chevy Suburban is currently set up for a late base model crate 350
(no vehicle
year attached to it per se) retro'd to look like the original 283 using all
vintage
hardware. Some states say that you get tested based on the vehicle year (which
I would
guess for 58 wouldn't have much concern); some say that you get tested based on
the
engine year if you have a replacement engine. This is my primary concern now.
Any
Comments? Will I need to ditch my 350 (long term) and go looking for an
original engine
(I have my original 283 but the block is in rough shape).
2--My 86 Chevy truck needs a new drivetrain and I was thinking about putting a
vette TPI
in it (86 or newer) with all of the necessary controls and emissions. This is
now a
secondary concern but is what prompted me to start thinking about this topic
and what I
was talking to Jim Forbes about. Jim probably took care of me there but what
are the
issues that others have run across on this topic?
3--How do the rules work about spending money to repair a noncompliant vehicle
and
getting a waiver after the required limit for that has been reached?
4--What are all the issues that I'm not even thinking about yet?
5--Any experience on politically impacting all this stuff...it's a given that
it will
be implemented but I am assuming that we can somewhat affect how it gets
implemented as
most states seem to have collector vehicle exemptions...but this usually
affects how
much you can drive it. Comments?
TN doesn't have to have all this in place for a few years, but they are
planning to get
started and my Suburban won't even be on the road until about the time that all
this
comes into play so I might as well design my restoration/restification around
all this
stuff.
Thanks,
Mark Noakes
58/56 Chevy Suburban
58 GMC NAPCO pickup
66 Chevy Corvair Monza
86 Chevy Silverado pickup
86 Corvette Indy
97 Jeep Wrangler (probably the only one that will pass emissions testing)
Knoxville, TN
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