I'm starting my quest for more HP in my '02. I prefer for it to stay CARB legal, as I live in San Diego. NO IM NOT MOVING TO ANOTHER STATE. It seems there is some promise of getting the swap legal provided the ECU and engine have matching VINs and the downpipes are modified correctly to fit. V8R says they have customers that have done it, and yet I have read many threads of successful LFX swaps, but no one has written about their success in Cali. I also read a thread about monster Miata in conjunction with a customer successfully BAR'd an LS3 swap.

So, has anyone here pulled it off?

 

As per CA smog laws, you can legally swap any engine into any car so long as you keep ALL emissions related things from the donor car. The engine must also be from the same year or newer as your chassis.

For example, if you have an 02 Miata, you can swap in any 2002-2019 engine if you keep all emissions equipment from the vehicle the engine was originally in. You can find all this by searching on DMV’s website, so I’m not going to bother looking for links.

 

https://www.miataturbo.net/build-thr...p-build-92817/