240 CA Smog Referee Engine Swap Questions

I'm currently in the process of swapping a 1992 B230F and LH2.4 into my 1980 242 and I'm planning to get the swap approved by a smog referee. However the donor car isn't originally from California and doesn't have EGR like a 1992 240 from California would. Were there any California LH2.4 engines without EGR? If there weren't any California LH2.4 cars without EGR is buying the EGR stuff and installing it on this engine my only option to get this approved? Thanks in advance for any input.

Do you really think the smog tech is gonna know the difference between Kjet and LH? It's not like you're swapping in a turbo motor or an LS, just don't say anything.

larry818 said:

Do you really think the smog tech is gonna know the difference between Kjet and LH? It's not like you're swapping in a turbo motor or an LS, just don't say anything.

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I agree with Larry (mostly). A typical 25 year old smog tech without specific 240 knowledge will not know you don't have K-Jet. If you were swapping a later turbo motor into a turbo car, then I would say you would just need to try to make it look less obvious that anything is different. But adding the turbo to a non-turbo car... IDK, so I think we need to hear from some of the Calif +T people who have had their cars smogged.

One thing I learned that you might keep in mind. If your car originally had a vacuum canister on the distributor or on the ignition ECU, the tech will be instructed to locate it and unplug the vacuum line so he can check timing. I added a non-functional canister for that purpose.
Dave B

My only $0.02 is that (and I have a non-EGR engine in an EGR chassis, and living in California, but have not smogged yet) when I did my swap, my emissions levels were lower with the non-EGR model than previously.
As for hardware, smog seems to be very station-by-station, so I don't know what to say there.

No idea on the EGR thing, but he mentioned taking it to a referee so that he can get the bar code and have a 100% legal swap (would be easier to sell it down the road)

I've talked to one of the Bay Area refs in Livermore(?) and he listed the things he will check. The ref is a lot more strict than some young tech at the local smog station.

As long as it looks st least semi factory you wont have any problems passing visual... one of the perks of volvos. I wouldnt waste time trying to get it approved

I put a D-Jet and a new B20 in a '67 122 and made it look stock. It passed smog several times before it wasn't required any more.

Is the 242 a California emissions car? Look at your emission sticker it will say this vehicle conforms to blah blah for 1980 model year. In that blah blah it will say federal or california. If it doesn't say california then your good, a 90 740 or 760 federal car did not have egr and was LH 2.4. You also will.need to put in a check engine light and the air box with the thermostatic air cleaner. Retain the evap system and the cat for the engine that the car came out of. Really as said before if you don't say anything most smog techs have no clue. My 80 243 was a stroked 2.3 that had a big intercooler and was megasquirted. but aside from the intercooler it looked stock aside from the fact it was efi not kjet and they had no clue. Passed no issue.

But if you chose the ref route all you need to do it tell them what the year and model was that will match what's under the hood. If you run egr on an egr ecu then you may fail the sniffer test fyi. the California and federal ecu and icu for lh2.4 are different for the egr reason. But if you tell them it's a 92 740t they will look up what it's supposed to have, which will be cat egr evap and I think the thermostatic air cleaner and a check light, they will check to be sure the cat is correct, and they will run an evap pressure test for the 92 740t and run your car on the dyno. That's it

But I don't know if you can technically put a non cali engine in a car and get it reffed in cali even if it's a federal car. You can call the ref you want to goto and ask them what they will accept, and goto that ref. And really. technically the engine swap guidelines don't say you cant..and I got my truck engine kn my oldsmobile through the ref due to a poorly written engine guide change in california. The guy I went to said yeah rhat is kinda vauge, made a phone call and really because its such a dumb rule cause the truck engine was cleaner than what came out they gave me an exception

volvorod85 said:

Is the 242 a California emissions car? Look at your emission sticker it will say this vehicle conforms to blah blah for 1980 model year. In that blah blah it will say federal or california. If it doesn't say california then your good, a 90 740 or 760 federal car did not have egr and was LH 2.4

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My 242 says it is a California emissions car on the sticker so swapping in the non California engine definitely wouldn't be allowed if I took it to the referee as it is.

I don't plan on selling the car and I'm planning on swapping the engine to a turbo engine before the next smog test is due anyway so it definitely looks like it makes more sense to do a normal smog test with the new engine and hope the smog tech doesn't notice. BTW I'm swapping a NA B230F from a 1992 240 into my NA 242 so there won't be any issues with having a turbo on a non turbo car.

dbarton said:

I agree with Larry (mostly). A typical 25 year old smog tech without specific 240 knowledge will not know you don't have K-Jet. If you were swapping a later turbo motor into a turbo car, then I would say you would just need to try to make it look less obvious that anything is different. But adding the turbo to a non-turbo car... IDK, so I think we need to hear from some of the Calif +T people who have had their cars smogged.

One thing I learned that you might keep in mind. If your car originally had a vacuum canister on the distributor or on the ignition ECU, the tech will be instructed to locate it and unplug the vacuum line so he can check timing. I added a non-functional canister for that purpose.
Dave B

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That's a really good idea and I would have never considered them checking for that. I'll try to take the vacuum canister off of my kjet distributor and attach it to the LH2.4 distributor

Volvo Kid said:

That's a really good idea and I would have never considered them checking for that. I'll try to take the vacuum canister off of my kjet distributor and attach it to the LH2.4 distributor

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I believe you should be able to just run the K-jet distributor.

All the LH2.4 one is is a cap and rotor, the timing information comes from the flywheel.

do you have to pull a vacuum line when you set timing on the B21? Honestly i wouldnt worry about it, like i said most guys dont know what is right or not. The smog machine has no info to say its turbo or na and a b21 looks like a b23 looks like a b230 looks like an AQ 151 (2.5l stroker with an 8v head) they dont know and the machine wont tell em. They will look at the sticker under the hood which will tell him it should have blah blah blah. Infact your 80 shouldnt have an EGR valve so honestly, stuff the motor in wire it cleanly hook everything up and dont worry about the EGR. Dont put in a check light. Take it in and get it smogged. most likely it will be fine

sim said:

I believe you should be able to just run the K-jet distributor.

All the LH2.4 one is is a cap and rotor, the timing information comes from the flywheel.

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I can't use the whole kjet distributor because I don't think the kjet engine will run with the LH distributor and I'm putting the kjet engine into the 1992 240 after I put the B230 in my 242.

If your current emissions set up contains egr, you need to retain it post swap if going through a ref. That said, at a smog station, they don't/can't really test egr, just to see if it all looks connected and in functional order.

For egr setup, you need egr compatable EZK and manifold(s?) If going that route.

I'll have to deal with this as I'm putting a 16vt together in a cali car.

Volvo Kid said:

I can't use the whole kjet distributor because I don't think the kjet engine will run with the LH distributor and I'm putting the kjet engine into the 1992 240 after I put the B230 in my 242.

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Ah yes, that won't work.

If it is just a matter of inspection, you could swap it in for the day, assuming it is an issue with the tech.

Maxdabreaker said:

If your current emissions set up contains egr, you need to retain it post swap if going through a ref.

I'll have to deal with this as I'm putting a 16vt together in a cali car.

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The only reason you need to retain it is if the donor has it. Otherwise you dont have to worry about it. Im telling you the best way to deal with this, cause i swear every ref will be different with what you can get away with, is to find your local ref and contact them directly. Or find out where they are located, usually schools and go talk to them. Then you will know exactly what you can and cant do. While the rules are seemingly simple, you need to retain everything from the donor, there are exceptions because the rules written are vague. There are only 14 i think refs in the state of california. So find out what they want to see, and do that. And I would be curious bout the federal vs cali stuff, cause volvo ommited egr for most federal cars, and certain smog ref manuals have the info for emission controls incorrect. No reason you cant retain egr, who the hell cares really, its not gonna keep you from going fast.

So I got the car smogged today and it failed for high NOX and the ignition timing was at 12* BTDC instead of 8*. I think a new cat will fix the high NOX problem but the ignition timing being off will still make the car fail. As far as I know the timing isn't adjustable on LH2.4 so is there anything I can do to fix this or is getting the swap approved by a smog referee my only option at this point?

Paint a new mark on the crank pulley.
Dave B

Idk why I didn't think of that. Thanks for the idea